Comcast-Charter JV pitches Pioneer Xumo TVs exclusively at Best Buy

Further setting the stage for this year's holiday buying season, Xumo, the Comcast-Charter Communications national streaming joint venture, is starting to sell a lineup of smart TVs made by Pioneer exclusively at Best Buy.  

Pioneer is the third announced TV maker to connect with Xumo, which also has partnerships with Hisense and Element Electronics. Hisense also sells Xumo TVs (55-inch and 65-inch models) at select Best Buy retail locations and online.

Update: This new family of TVs from Xumo carry the Pioneer brand, but are being manufactured by China's TCL, according to TheDesk.

The first wave of Pioneer TVs powered by Xumo's software platform will become available in November. Those initial models will support 4K, Dolby Vision HDR and HDR10 technology, a voice remote and come in four screen sizes: 43 inches, 50 inches, 55 inches and 65 inches.

Xumo said the new Xumo Pioneer TVs support "hundreds" of built-in apps, including Apple TV+, Disney+, Max, Hulu, Netflix, Peacock, Amazon Prime Video and YouTube. Xumo has also integrated several free, ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) services, including Pluto, Tubo and its own Xumo Play offering.

Xumo Pioneer TVs already appearing online

Best Buy is already promoting the new Xumo Pioneer sets online, including a 43-inch model for $269.99, a 50-inch model for $299.99, a 55-inch model for $349.99 and a 65-inch model for $449.99.

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Xumo has not disclosed how many smart TVs have been sold with its platform on board. But Xumo's new exclusive with Best Buy arrives ahead of the 2023 holiday buying season and helps to put the JV in position to compete against rivals that sell or make smart TVs integrated with their own platforms. Prime examples include Samsung (Tizen), LG Electronics (webOS), Amazon (Fire TV), Google (Google TV/Android TV), Vizio and Roku.

Following an initial focus on Europe, TiVo expects to jump into the North American smart TV market sometime in 2024.