The details
The American-owned streaming service was established in 2011 as a joint venture between Panasonic and Viant Technology. Generally. Live TV video streaming services are expensive since their prices depend on licensing deals with cable channel owners.
Xumo breaks this norm by broadcasting Live TV shows for free. Note, the service doesn’t broadcast paid Live TV services; instead, it shows select livestreams, on-demand content and a collection of interest-based channels.
Content
By comparison with Pluto TV, another free live streaming service, Xumo makes a worthy competitor. With a News category provides live streams of Bloomberg, ABC News Live, and NBC News Now it makes a worthy rival.
However we found that Xumo doesn’t have live broadcasts for sports. Instead, you get highlight shows and commentary from Field & Stream, Sports Illustrated and other such channels. As for its TV and Movie category, you get to enjoy content from American Classics, FilmRise and generic-based channels like Black Cinema.
User experience
Navigating Xumo’s web interface is easy thanks to its easy-to-use platform. Also, it doesn’t have too many ads as other free streaming services. When watching on-demand content, you view advertisements that remind you about recently released titles.
Also, we noticed that the streaming service displayed a short 20-30 second commercial break when switching from one channel to another. It only happened on the Roku version of Xumo.
Streaming speed
For optimal and buffer-free streaming, Xumo recommends a speed of 10 Mbps. And with most of the content having a resolution of 720p HD, this speed is more than enough even when streaming content on multiple devices.
Value
By comparison to its closest competitor, Pluto TV, Xumo performs equally well. It has a healthy mix of on-demand and Live TV shows. Also, Xumo is available on mobile devices, web, and media streaming platforms and as an app on smart TVs, so you don’t need to purchase new streaming devices. However, we couldn’t stream content on smart TVs like Apple TVs and gaming consoles like Xbox One and Chromecasts.
Final verdict
Xumo has outdone other free streaming services due to its ability to broadcast Live TV shows. However, we experienced some lag in its web interface when using the mobile app. Also, its limited selection of streaming devices was a bummer especially for users using smart Tvs like Apple TV exclusively.
