Media Innovation

In case you’re wondering, “Wait, doesn’t Amazon already have a free ad-supported platform?” — yes, Freevee still lives, though the industry is now questioning its survival in the wake of Amazon’s ad-tier announcement. TVREV Co-Founder and Lead Analyst Alan Wolk expressed confusion but ultimately considers it a strategic move by Amazon to eventually draw in more paying viewers. “I suspect that most people who watch Freevee are not even aware they are watching it, [but Amazon can sell ads across both Freevee and Prime Video,] increasing the odds an advertiser can hit a target.”

Philo has integrated its wallet-friendly streaming television service into Vizio’s line-up of Internet-connected TV sets, the company announced this week.

In this interview with Jason Damata, Founder and CEO at Truthset, Scott McKinley, explains why he started the company, and how it uses a Data Collective to provide ad buyers, sellers and users of large scale consumer data, with visibility into how accurate their data is to produce better business outcomes.

Philo has officially joined forces with VIZIO: as of Jan. 31, the live TV streamer is now available on the VIZIO Smart TVs, joining a growing list of platform partners and devices where Philo can be accessed, including Roku, Amazon Fire TV, and more.

Companies’ approaches fall short more often than they realise, according to Sailthru, the marketing solution provider. Its poll showed that 71 per cent of retailers believed they excel with personalisation but only 34 per cent of consumers agreed.

After the Super Bowl, the two NFL conference championship games are the most watched programs on television. This trend will continue in 2024. Collectively, the two games averaged 56.1 million viewers, an increase of 11% from the previous year. With a price tag for a :30 ad reaching $3 million or more, Sportico estimated the two networks CBS and Fox had garnered $485 million in ad dollars over the two games. Inscape estimates the two games accounted for 46.3% of total TV usage for the day.

“These findings disprove the narrative of inattention or lesser value in FAST environments,” said Devin Fallon, senior director of Media Insights & Analytics at Vizio, the owner of the WatchFree+ FAST, in a statement on Adelaide’s FAST audience attention scores in comparison to CTV and linear TV.

VIZIO and Adelaide, an attention-based media quality analyst group, released a report on Monday that shows free ad-supported streaming services outperformed linear TV and overall programming at connected TVs when it came to engagement.

Free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) apps outperform CTV and linear TV options in viewer attention, according to joint research from Vizio and attention metrics provider Adelaide.

VIZIO (NYSE: VZIO) and leading attention metrics provider Adelaide, today released joint research aimed at identifying what TV environments viewers pay the most attention to while watching.

Viewers may not pay for free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) channels, but they appear to be paying attention, according to a new report from smart TV maker Vizio and attention research company Adelaide.

However, advertising can also add a layer of creative complexity to content production as well, as noted by a lead analyst at TVREV, Alan Wolk, in a column on STV. “When you’re making shows for subscribers, you have a lot of freedom as to where you can go creatively. When you need to convince brands to run ads against those shows, there’s a whole new set of criteria you have to be aware of,” wrote Wolk.

The newly acquired films will be available for U.S. transactional video-on-demand (TVOD) and advertising-based-video-on-demand (AVOD) release, and you’ll be able to find them through Tribeca’s existing FAST channel streaming infrastructure The Tribeca Channel. That streaming channel is currently available via The Roku Channel, Apple TV, Amazon Prime Video, YouTube Movies & TV, Kanopy, Tubi, Pluto TV, VIZIO WatchFree+, Sling TV, Peacock, Vudu, XUMO and more.

I think the combination of everything is an ad network plus there's no such thing as national advertising, everything is local. The combination of the two of those coming together I think are really exciting. What's driving all that is data, and then how does that translate to reaching audiences?

How our customers are going to use our data and innovate around our data using artificial intelligence, how internally VIZIO and Inscape is going to use artificial intelligence to innovate and advance our technologies, and then the last thing is how AI is going to have a positive impact on the user and the user experience, and in particular in the TV industry.

“AI is going to be a huge game-changer,” says TVREV co-founder and lead analyst Alan Wolk. He coined the term “FAST” for free ad-supported television during its infancy as an outlet for digitized longtail and legacy content that FAST channel providers were discovering could enjoy a second or third life as commer­cially viable media, thanks to the improved tar­geting opportunities available through OTT

Each week, we highlight the most-watched shows and networks using insights from Inscape, the currency-grade smart TV ACR data provider and data technology division of Vizio. Data is linear, live TV only and includes all episode types (new and reruns). Rankings are by percent share duration (i.e., time spent watching). Here's a look at the top 25 networks by viewership share for January 15-21 — head over to TVREV to see the program ranking and get insights about the top shows by watch-time.

Welcome to our weekly snapshot of TV by the numbers, highlighting the most-watched shows and networks for January 15-21, with insights from Inscape, the currency-grade smart TV ACR data provider and data technology division of Vizio. Data is linear, live TV only and includes all episode types (new and reruns). Rankings are by percent share duration (i.e., time spent watching).

There was much more bad news to report. Ratings were down, prompting media analyst Alan Wolk to claim “ Cable News Is Dying” and then-Washington Post media reporter Paul Farhi to diagnose the business’ “ looming existential crisis.” Financial Times columnist Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson and Richard J. Tofel, a former executive at the Wall Street Journal and ProPublica, agreed, as did the conservative American Enterprise Institute’s Christen Rosen. Even Carlson, now divorced from the medium that had made him a star, was detecting a “ limited future” for cable.

ADAM BERGMAN (VIZIO ADS): How we talk about business outcomes is the thing I'm most excited about this year. A CPG company wants to sell a tube of toothpaste; the QSR wants you rolling through the drive-thru and coming in-store. Whether you're on the buy side, sell side, ad technology, big data, whatever it is, we need to be talking about what an actual brand wants to achieve with a real consumer.

The divisional round of the NFL Playoffs utterly dominated TV viewership this weekend, capturing a 33.62% viewership share across Saturday and Sunday according to Inscape data. That’s an increase from the 2023 divisional round weekend games, which captured a 27.48% share.

Although the NFL has started experimenting with having some games only available on streaming, the sport continues to absolutely crush it for linear TV, especially with the playoffs in full swing.

Roku, Amazon, and Vizio use that ad revenue (buttressed by the cash they make from selling data about user viewing habits) to subsidize the cost of their budget-priced TVs and streaming hardware.

The details: “The data from more than 22 million opted-in Vizio TV households will help put local stations, whose data previously came mainly via the Nielsen panel or cable set-top boxes, on an even playing field with national networks in counting over-the-air and smart TV viewership,” Neff notes.

In Q2 of 2023, a CPG giant came to VIZIO to help draw attention to its first global brand campaign in over 150 years. VIZIO Ads was proud to play a significant role by providing the company with prime placement on our most valuable piece of advertising real estate — the VIZIO Home Screen.

Great question—yes, it does! Some TV commerce is curated through partnerships, such as a shoppable series created by Vizio and Home Depot to promote the store’s holiday product line. But emerging versions of shoppable TV use AI to match in-show items with similar products available in the viewer’s market. While these formats will also factor in sponsors and retailer inventory, they also create more opportunities for media companies based on audience targeting.

Every year, GLAAD also honors a select group of projects in the non-competitive special recognition category. This year’s honorees include The Dads (Netflix), Drag Latina (Revry / LATV), El Sabor de Navidad (Vix), Enamorándonos (Univision), Love in Gravity, Relighting Candles (Hulu), Renaissance: A Film by Beyonce (AMC Theatres), The Tennessee Holler, Wendy, perdida pero famosa (Vix), and Yes I Am: The Ric Weiland Story.

It’s wise to consider this in the light of recent news that smart television manufacturer Vizio will be sharing data from TV tuners through its data division, Inscape. The company says that 22 million TVs are opted-in, and that data will be used by stations and measurement companies, including Comscore and VideoAmp, to provide more detailed viewing information from a larger number of viewers.

The study strongly supports recent partnerships between e-commerce and technology providers that aim to integrate so-called “shoppable” ad experiences into streaming video services and platforms. Some companies that are focused on these developments include Roku, Vizio, Amazon, DoorDash, Walmart, Warner Bros. Discovery, Comcast’s NBC Universal, Samsung and LG, among others.

Welcome to our weekly snapshot of TV by the numbers, highlighting the most-watched shows and networks for January 8-14, with insights from Inscape, the currency-grade smart TV ACR data provider and data technology division of Vizio. Data is linear, live TV only and includes all episode types (new and reruns). Rankings are by percent share duration (i.e., time spent watching).