Two leading US cable networks are to further develop the Flex streaming platform as a potential rival to the likes of Roku and Apple TV.
Charter and Comcast have formed a 50/50 joint venture to develop and offer a next-generation streaming platform on a variety of branded 4K streaming devices and smart TVs. The joint venture will offer app developers, streamers, retailers, operators, and hardware manufacturers the opportunity to reach customers in major markets across the United States.
Comcast will license Flex, its aggregated streaming platform and hardware to the joint venture, contribute the retail business for XClass TVs and also will contribute Xumo, the streaming service it acquired in 2020. Charter will make an initial contribution of $900 million, funded over multiple years.
Flex first made its debut on Comcast in 2019 with the first HiSense-manufactured XClass TVs appearing last autumn.
“We’re thrilled to partner with Charter to bring this platform and its award-winning experience to millions of new customers. These products are all designed to make search and discovery across live, on-demand and streaming video seamless and incredibly simple for consumers,” said Dave Watson, CEO of Comcast Cable. “This partnership uniquely brings together more than a decade of technical innovation, national scale and new opportunities to monetize our combined investment.”
Comcast’s Flex product includes all the most-watched streaming apps in the marketplace including Comcast’s Peacock. The products will also offer several hundred free channels through Zumo.
