Pfaff asks Wolk, “What recently stands out to you in terms of the state of metadata where streamers are battling for engagement and retention?”

Vizio ended the third quarter of 2023 with 17.9 million SmartCast active accounts, a slight increase on the quarter before. Vizio also saw a slight increase in the overall number of hours streamed using its platform.

Vizio’s WatchFree+ service has expanded once again, with the streaming service now offering smart TV owners access to more than 275 live channels, and over 15,000 on-demand movies and shows.

Vizio this summer began rolling out an updated smart TV home screen touting enhanced personalization. Whereas Amazon in the past year has tweaked the user interface for both Prime Video and Fire TV.

“Revry was one of the founding members,” Pelliccione says. In addition to the ten founding channels, they say, “We’ve signed on over 35 different publishers.” To become a part of the ISA, “You cannot be owned by the major eight. When we did a test with iSpot, we saw that almost 60% of all inventory and 60% of all viewership were coming from just the folks in this group alone. So there is going to be a collective bargaining.”

Vizio has confirmed that it will be hosting its second annual developer conference next month, providing those attending with an opportunity to delve deeper into the company’s latest operating system innovations.

Some of the features that Vizio TV users can expect with The Weather Channel app include…

Right now, Vizio TV users have the option to save 50% on the cost of AMC Plus for the first two months. Considering a standard AMC Plus subscription typically costs $8.99 per month, this deal brings the price down to just $4.49 per month.

The news confirms that Maximum Effort Channel will be widely available through free platforms, and on a variety of different devices, including Hisense, LG and Vizio smart TVs.

There are already plenty of apps for Vizio TV users to make use of, including the company’s own WatchFree+ service. As WatchFree+ already provided access to QVC and HSN content, this latest development marks an expansion of the agreement between Vizio and Qurate Retail Group, the owner of QVC and HSN.

Technically, the VIZIOgram feature went live in January of this year. However, it was only available as a public beta, requiring the user to opt-in to get a sneak peak at how the feature works. Starting today, VIZIOgram is now more widely available to Vizio TV owners. Anyone with the Vizio mobile app downloaded on their phone, and a Vizio account set up, are able to send a VIZIOgram photo or video from their mobile device.

Just in time for the festive period, Vizio is relaunching its Winter Watchland collection. For those that owned a Vizio smart TV this time last year, they may remember the launch of the company’s 2021 Winter Watchland experience which included a collection of over 500 hours of free holiday-themed content. As part of this year’s Winter Watchland experience, the home screen will feature a new Seasons Greetings carousel that highlights available holiday-themed content spanning categories including comedy, romance, kids, family, and music.

Vizio smart TV users now have access to the Fox Sports app and the Fox Weather channel. Vizio already provides access to a number of Fox properties including Fox Nation, Fox Now, and Tubi, with the arrival of Fox Sports and Fox Weather marking an expansion of the agreement that was already in place between Vizio and Fox.

Vizio’s WatchFree+ service has now added four Scripps Networks channels for TV users to watch for free. Similar to many other free apps and services, WatchFree+ offers consumers a way to watch select shows, movies, and even live TV channels for free. This ‘FAST’ sector has quickly become one of the main areas of growth within the streaming industry, and that’s only likely to continue with the addition of more channels.