As it said it would back in October, when it unveiled the Xumo Stream Box with its joint-venture partner Charter Communications, Comcast has started giving out the streaming gadget for free to its internet customers.
Each of Comcast's nearly 30 million residential high-speed internet customers can, starting Tuesday, ask for one free Xumo Stream Box, and pay $5 a month each for additional devices.
Notably, Comcast has already made another voice-controlled connected TV gadget, the Xfinity Flex, available under similar terms to its broadband-only customers since 2019.
A Comcast rep told Next TV that Flex users are free to exchange their older boxes gratis for the new device, a 4K capable gadget running on the newer, leading-edge Comcast EntertainmentOS platform, which was developed via the company's Sky Glass initiative.
Besides being newer and generally much faster at processing, Comcast is also touting the Stream Box's AI-based content recommendation features, and its ability to turn myriad FAST-channel options into a live, pay TV-like experience.
Comcast's deployment comes about two months after Xumo JV partner Charter started giving away the Stream Box to its video customers. Charter now describes Xumo Stream Box as its go-to video set-top.
Tier-2 cable operator Mediacom Communications has also since signed on to distribute the gadget to its customers.
