Xumo founder and former CEO Colin Petrie-Norris has embarked on a new venture with the aim of standing up a big tent as a studio to welcome and foster creators and collocate advanced AI tools for visual entertainment content creation – with original feature-length AI-generated programming to be served up both on a forthcoming branded streaming service and third-party distributors.
The name of the company is Fairground Entertainment and it’s looking to serve consumers and stakeholders in entertainment as a studio and central point for both the creator economy and AI-based content creation technologies, with plans to debut initial AI-generated TV shows later this year.
StreamTV Insider sat down virtually with Petrie-Norris to discuss plans and traction for Fairground Entertainment.
Petrie-Norris is no stranger to being at the forefront of changes in content and viewing trends. He was one of the founders of Xumo, the free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) service now operated as a Comcast-Charter joint venture, back in 2011 before free ad-supported linear TV proliferated streaming and became a multi-billion-dollar market within the TV ecosystem. Formerly CEO of Xumo he served as chief revenue and platform officer of the unit at Comcast at the time of his exit last May and since then, after taking some time to spend with family, has been focused on the next move.
Speaking to StreamTV Insider, Petrie-Norris said that as he was charting the course, one glaringly obvious factor was that “AI is going to be pretty impactful on the entertainment industry.”
A goal of Fairground is to unleash the broader creator economy and help them to utilize new visual generative AI technologies for content creation, offering training, support and the tools to do so, as well as exposure and distribution in the streaming space. But it’s also looking to bring some order and serve as a provider to a wider entertainment industry in which most content and IP owners, as well as streamers and platforms, are trying to figure out ways to navigate, utilize and incorporate the nascent and somewhat Wild West environment of AI-generated content and tools.
His latest foray leans on experience from Xumo at bringing reimagined TV concepts alongside new technologies to streaming and serving as both a DTC streamer and B2B provider. He’s also leaning on some help from those who supported Xumo in the beginning. Viant Technologies, which was involved alongside Petrie-Norris and backed the early days of Xumo when it was formed as a joint venture between Viant and Panasonic before Comcast’s eventual $100 million acquisition in 2020, led a $4 million seed funding round for Fairground. Viant co-founder Tim Vanderhook gave a nod of endorsement in the funding announcement.
"Fairground Entertainment shares our vision for innovation in streaming entertainment, centered on the transformative power of AI," said Tim Vanderhook, co-founder and CEO of Viant Technology, in a statement. "Viant Technology founded Xumo together with Colin, so we know first-hand that he is a skilled entrepreneur. His expertise in scaling and monetizing streaming platforms makes him the ideal leader to move the content creation space forward with an AI-first approach.”
Taking a page from Xumo’s playbook
To be clear, Fairground itself isn’t building genAI tools for content creation, but rather serving as an enabler where creators can go to utilize leading-edge technologies available, while also getting their foot in the door and wider distribution among the broader entertainment industry.
And while there are other AI-focused studios trying to get in on the content game, Fairground wants to be a provider for not only the global creator community, but companies, IP and content owners and streaming services looking for a central platform and player to leverage new advanced technologies, AI-generated content, and distribution.
In some ways it’s taking a page from the Xumo playbook in that Fairground plans to serve multiple stakeholders in the market.
The model is somewhat similar to how Xumo has different arms serving various parts of the ecosystem: a DTC FAST service with Xumo Play, a B2B technology and content provider powering free live streaming channels for other content owners, platforms and services (including on TCL smart TVs and FreePlay on GoogleTV) with Xumo Enterprise, and a device arm with Xumo-branded smart TVs and streaming boxes.
For Xumo, having not only its own content but also experience from doing the work itself for FAST channel ingestion, creation and distribution makes it stand out as a vendor partner to do the same for others in the industry, while owning content and having an underpinning platform helps improve its own DTC FAST service as well.
Likewise, Fairground wants to get some chops through its own creators and AI-generated content creation and distribution experience and platform, while serving as a provider to help other companies and content owners do the same.
Helping organize the Wild West of genAI content technologies
Fairground is not a Sora or a Midjourney, where Petrie-Norris acknowledged the market for genAI visual creation tools and improvements is exploding but said that fact is very exciting to the company.
Fairground’s focus, meanwhile, “is taking the best of that [AI tech] and getting it into the entertainment ecosystem or in front of consumers” through content, he said.
In terms of standing apart from other genAI studio efforts, according to Petrie-Norris, unlike many companies that have a small in-house team of people doing AI content creation, Fairground is “community minded” and trying to help the broadest set of people and creators involved.
To that end, he said Fairground aims to assist the broader global creator economy, “using AI to make good stuff” and “help them find their way to their intersection of the entertainment world.”
The second unique piece – and where experience at Xumo comes in – is that Fairground, as mentioned, is building a platform, or the underpinnings and engine, through which the AI-generated content can not only be produced but ingested and then connected to distribution points and delivered at scale to various platforms.
“We're a studio, because we're building our [own] shows and some we're getting out the door, but we're also a platform and distributor so that we can help people find a way with their own content, their own IP,” he said.
Helping companies make sense of a rapidly changing entertainment and genAI world is another goal of the company.
Petrie-Norris noted that various parties across the entertainment industry are trying to figure out how to best utilize AI and are having conversations on how it helps, hurts, empowers or potentially scares them.
Fairground wants to help “organize that space” in terms of genAI tools for TV content and create an offering that can serve multiple entertainment stakeholders, from small to large.
As he pursues the venture, Petrie-Norris said conversations have spanned the ecosystem, with interest from major studios in how Fairground can assist and be used for their own existing IP to “little mom and pop shops” and individuals working on their own content efforts.
Democratizing TV entertainment
He also views Fairground as a way to democratize access to TV production and storytelling, not dissimilar to how FAST opened the door to the TV screen and TV-style networks to content owners more broadly, with hundreds of channels per service and many independent FAST channel owners cropping up in the US alone.
In that pursuit, Fairground is looking to work with all kinds of creators, with Petrie-Norris saying they range from single individuals to small teams and film schools through to traditional studios.
“I’m not discerning in who I partner with…what I’m building is a platform to give them the exposure and the tools,” he said. In that sense he views Fairground as an enabler, giving creators credits and spotlight when TV shows arrive soon and later this year, adding “I’m here to help them get a foothold in this industry.”
Initial projects expected in Q3, major streaming partner to be announced
Initial AI-generated programming from Fairground is expected to be released in Q3 this year, starting with two shows featuring ready-for-TV episodes.
Beyond that, Fairground has over a dozen projects in the pipeline for 2025, which span a range of lengths and variety of different formats.
But Petrie-Norris believes the net “will be a lot greater than that” as the company isn’t just commissioning its own content but also getting submissions from the industry at large and other clients already working with the company.
“I think we’re seeing a very rapid acceleration in the library,” he said.
While not naming names, Petrie-Norris told StreamTV Insider that Fairground has “a large streaming partner” - which it expects to disclose imminently this summer - that will carry some of the company’s first shows. Afterwards he expects to expand to other distribution endpoints, including Fairground’s own branded streaming service – but noted its own DTC efforts first needs “a certain critical mass of content to make it compelling to the consumer” so will start by launching content into other company’s services.
The types of content it’s leaning into are driven by what the company believes will work and what consumers desire.
“Just because it’s AI doesn’t make people want to watch it… it’s got to be good entertainment,” Petrie-Norris acknowledged, adding that Fairground is starting from the view of ‘what are consumers looking for?’ and matching it with the medium and AI tools to develop that.
Two main expected benefits from AI-generated content are reduced time and costs, and in addition to democratizing storytelling and showmaking to include a much larger pool of creators, another benefit Petrie-Norris sees from Fairground is getting genAI tools and content ready for the TV screen.
“Not everything’s ready for the larger ecosystem, it’s so raw, it’s slow and [un]refined,” he said. “I think that’s another thing that we can do to help create and guide the offering is that refinement.”
Respecting the entertainment industry
While some might think Fairground’s trying to do everything, Petrie-Norris assured “there’s a method to the madness.”
And although questions remain around appetite and consumer reception for AI-generated TV content, the founder said he’s “stoked to bits with the quality of what can be done with these tools, and it’s getting better all the time.”
“A lot of what you see with AI generated content today is made for social media, but it needs to be refined and to get something ready for television,” he said, adding TV carries high standards and responsibility for great storytelling, where Fairground wants to be a catalyst for AI-created TV-quality content.
In a release, the company said it would initially utilize stories in the public domain for reimagining, as well as license franchise IP.
Digging in a little bit, Petrie-Norris noted that copyright is one of “the larger issues and areas of caution” when it comes to genAI, and coming from a television background he has an appreciation for that.
“I’m not out just taking anything I can get, because I think I need to be respectful of the larger entertainment industry,” he commented.
To that end, starting off, Fairground wants to ensure it knows where the content is coming from, so will be tapping older stories (think more than 100 years old) “and retellings of that in creative new ways with these creators” and imagining different versions of famous stories – such as sometimes told with animation, or a new horror-style take, for example.
Other customers Fairground is working with, meanwhile, have IP they own and want to refresh or upgrade it, he said.
Iterative improvement, ads part of the picture
In addition to matching creators with AI tools, Fairground also aims to match content to audiences – such as horror, animation or science fiction content – to the appropriate fan base, all while using the same engine to create that specific content.
So building content and “matching it to the consumer is the two-part challenge we have,” he said.
Fairground expects to get iteratively better as the platform and tools improve, similar to Xumo and FAST. In the FAST ecosystem early days were more about stitching short-form content – often from websites - into longer form-linear channels that didn’t look a whole lot like traditional TV, but “fast forward today, that little idea is now an $8 billion industry,” he said.
Per Petrie-Norris, those improvements on FAST came “through observation about matching the content to the consumer by iteration and making it better.”
He sees similar momentum for genAI tools and the creator economy. With Fairground he wants to take experience from Xumo and get AI-generated content “in front of the consumers and iterate and match on it and find the right people.’
And with advertising a key piece of the FAST ecosystem, Petrie-Norris hinted advertising will also be part of the picture of Fairground.
“Advertising and this kind of content, there's a little match made in heaven here, I think,” he commented.
It could also get an assist from investor Viant, which runs its own DSP and has genAI tools of its own. While not disclosing any specific involvement beyond the seed funding, he expects Fairground will work with Viant, as well as others, on efforts around advertising.
As for the $4 million seed funding, dollars will initially be spent around content creation capabilities and growing the Fairground team, which currently has five members.
Still, it’s early days – which is part of the opportunity Petrie-Norris sees but means plenty of work ahead.
“What I see is momentum, and I see trajectory. And so I think what you see today, and we will be a year from now, two years, three years from now, it's extraordinary, but there's a lot we have to go through. There's a lot of lessons to be learned. There's a lot of iteration,” he said.
And he picked the Fairground name and logo – not just because ‘ai’ is in everything it does - but because of Petrie-Norris’ vision for the company - “it’s a big tent for the community of creators around the world.”
Article updated to correct Colin Petrie-Norris' title at the time of his departure from Comcast in 2024, which was then chief revenue and platform officer of the Xumo unit. A prior version stated Xumo CEO.