Comcast just acquired a streaming service youve probably never heard of from the owner of Myspace

Waging battle in the ongoing streaming wars means spending a lot of money to gain even a slight edge over the competition, sometimes even on services and products most everyday TV watchers have never heard of. For instance, Comcast announced on Tuesday that it’s acquired Xumo, an over-the-top streaming service with a paid and ad-supported free tier for both live and on-demand programming.

Where did this company come from, why is it at all valuable, and why does it sound like the name of a pokémon? Those are good questions, and Comcast may very well have the answers, although it’s not disclosing how much it paid for the company or why Xumo, like competing Walmart-owned Vudu and soon-to-be-Fox-owned Tubi, sound like the names for mythical...