Things had grown kind of quiet with Comcast and Charter's big Xumo TV joint venture, but there was activity Thursday when it was revealed that a third product line of Xumo-powered sets will hit Best Buy store shelves in November.
Four size iterations (43-, 50-, 55- and 65-inch) of 4K smart TVs wearing the Pioneer brand and featuring Xumo's TVOS will join Xumo sets from Element and Hisense, which debuted at retail over the spring and summer.
Best Buy has already started taking pre-orders for the Pioneer sets, pricing the 43-inch model at $269.99 and the 65-incher at $499.99.
“Our partnership with Best Buy represents a great step forward for consumer choice. Soon, consumers looking for an affordable and innovative smart TV will have a compelling new option in Pioneer Xumo TVs,” said Stephanie Cassi, Senior VP of sales and marketing for the Xumo JV, in a statement. “We’re focused on removing the complexity that’s come with the rise of streaming, enabling consumers to get back to enjoying their TV experience.”
Comcast and Charter are trying to take on incumbents Roku, Amazon, Google and Samsung in the global quest for streaming gateway OS control of the global living room.
It's hard to tell how it's going.
As Next TV reported Tuesday, Element and Hisense Xumo sets have been deeply discounted, with a 65-inch Dolby Vision-enabled TV powered by the Xumo TV OS and manufactured by Element reduced 34% to $329.99 on retailer Meijer's online storefront.
As we also noted, consumer reviews of the Xumo sets have been strong.
Also notable: the Pioneer brand is no longer manufactured by Japan's Pioneer Electronics, which now appears to be licensing the brand, at least for smart TVs, to China's TCL.
