Xumo, a quickly growing smart TV app is going multi-platform in a big way. A newXumo Rokuchannel (See video demo here or scroll to the bottom of the page) launched last week bringing 81 distinct premium brands to the platform, offering high-quality short-form content to the streaming platform that has become a household name in the OTT
business. What Xumo does, is allow major content producers to reach the streaming audience by putting together a platform within a platform. One app with multiple channels. The company, which recently debuted an app for IOS devices has apps for Vizio and Panasonic smart TVs will be rolling out some sharp new apps on LG, Sanyo, Magnavox, Phillips TV’s in the future.
How is it organized?
The Roku channel has a simple standard grid set up with categories listed on the left side and a left-to-right carousel navigation in each category. The content is broken up by categories. Currently featured are Entertainment, News, Lifestyle, Fashion, Comedy, Sports, The length of short form clips depends on the type and category from 10-second vine style clips in some of the comedy selections to full feature stories and vignettes where more appropriate. To be honest with you how long does a clip of someone
stepping on a mousetrap or tripping off a diving board have to be to get the point across right? But when it comes to news and educational programming on the other hand viewers will be able to get the full story in 10-15 minute allotments.
Some channels are already represented on The Roku, for instance, Sports Illustrated and The Young Turks “TYT” but in a lot of cases the channel adds many new options including major comedy brands Fail Army, Cracked, Fashion news from Cosmopolitan and even one my old Roku favorites The Onion is back via Xumo.
At this point, the company does not have any announcements about plans for other set-top box platforms but considering the way it has grown over the past year I would not be surprised to see it drop on others. Apple TV should be a target considering that it already has an IOS app. As more partners join with Xumo
