VIZIO Smart TV owners that love prestige TV now have a new streaming option as the manufacturer has added support for AMC+ to its native SmartCast platform. A VIZIO spokesperson confirmed to The Streamable that the app has been added to SmartCast and is now live, meaning that subscribers to AMC+ are now able to access the service’s app to watch iconic AMC series like “Mad Men,” “Breaking Bad,” and “The Walking Dead,” as well as films and shows from the rest of the company’s properties including Shudder, IFC Films, BBC America, Sundance Now, and Acorn TV; countless originals; and more.

VIZIO brings season's greetings to SmartCast audiences with its annual rendition of ‘Winter Watchland' – a collection of movies and shows, On Demand exclusives, holiday music and binge-worthy winter break escapes.

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 subscribers can watch holiday favorites through the Seasons Greeting carousel which includes: The Vizio Holiday Movies Channel with holiday movies on Channel 199 for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week; On Demand Holiday Hub with a curated collection of free holiday movies on WatchFree+; and Vizio Fireplace Channel (channel 502), which offers the ambiance of four distinct crackling fireplace scenes.

Winter Watchland is an all-in-one holiday destination on the VIZIO home screen. VIZIO users can discover festive finds with VIZIO’s Seasons Greetings carousel featuring holiday content across categories like comedy, romance, kids, family, music and more.

“Fans will discover both new and old holiday-themed programming with this curated collection that is sure to keep viewers in the holiday spirit well into the New Year,” VIZIO’s senior director of product marketing and engagement Christina Ruiz said. “We are pleased to bring back ‘Winter Watchland’ to living rooms across the country by serving up an expansive line-up of seasonal content that audiences love.”

Vizio is showing its Yuletide spirit by launching Winter Watchland, its annual collection of free holiday movies, programs and music.

Winter Watchland appears on the Vizio home screen with a carousel featuring content including the world premiere of The Christmas Spirit from Maverick Entertainment Group. Also featured are CTV premieres of Christmas Lucky Charm, Santa’s Got Style and Christmas on the Slopes from Brain Power Studio and A Unicorn for Christmas from MarVista Entertainment.

If that calendar speed-up is the bad news, the good news is that a marketing shift should lead to consumers being partners in building a stronger bottom line. Tired of being tracked all over the internet by ads for products they don’t want, consumers are willing to help brands “meet them where they are.” Imagine a world in which you knew what your customers planned to buy in the future because they told you.

Vizio is turning up its annual holiday hub, dubbed "Winter Watchland," on millions of smart TV home screens.

The holiday content destination features a Seasons Greetings carousel with a collection of movies, shows, on-demand content and holiday music. Vizio’s also using the hub to drive viewers to its free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) service WatchFree+, with seasonal exclusives and seasonal premieres.

A new data-driven report from VIZIO takes a look at each audience and the overlap and finds, among other things, they aren’t that different from one another. And that brands with a heavy emphasis on the NFL and college football actually aren’t getting a ton of extra reach by advertising during both.

VIZIO looked at TV audiences from Aug. 28, 2021 through Feb. 13, 2022 to reveal just how much NFL and college football audiences overlap, plus how much of minutes watched are actually on programming beyond live sports.

VIZIO tapped its Inscape ACR data to examine common assumptions about football viewers and advertising trends. The results poke holes in conventional wisdom and highlights a need for advertisers to update their strategies for the modern TV environment.

Kudos to honorees Paul Colichman of Here TV, Cameron Douglas of Fandango/Vudu, Danny Fisher of FilmRise, Adam Lewinson of Tubi, Gene Pao of Shout! Factory, Katherine Pond of Vizio, and Stefan Van Engen of Xumo who were on hand for the fun

Musiio wasn’t the only metadata-focused startup finding a new home in 2022 either. Musicube had already attracted clients including Sony Music for its own set of metadata and music search tools. That pinged the radar of one of the most acquisition-hungry companies (outside Utopia) in the music industry: B2B firm Songtradr. Read our story here.

Wendy Werve is CMO of CM Group, and has over 20 years of experience developing, leading, and executing growth-focused marketing strategies.

In terms of what Disney should do with Hulu, TVREV co-founder and analyst Alan Wolk thinks Hulu presents an opportunity as a free ad-supported streaming service, noting Disney is the only major broadcast network company that doesn’t have a FAST. In a column for NextTV, he said the main purpose of launching a FAST would be to help Disney win market share internationally in emerging markets where people have less disposable income for TV services.

Below is a snapshot of TV by the numbers for the week of November 21-27, highlighting the most-watched shows and networks using glass-level data from Inscape(opens in new tab), and network and show TV ad impressions insights via iSpot.tv(opens in new tab).

Via Inscape, the currency-grade smart TV ACR data provider and data technology division of Vizio with insights from a panel of more than 20 million opted-in TVs. 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).

Using ACR data from its Inscape division, VIZIO examined the differences (or lack thereof) between NFL and college football fans, how football audiences view other types of programming, and how much time they spend watching other types of sports. The results poke holes in much of the conventional wisdom regarding football viewers and viewing trends, and highlights a need for advertisers to update their strategies for the modern TV environment.

The international creative music agency’s latest expansion follows on from opening an office in Warsaw, Poland in 2021 along with the acquisition of Sydney and Singapore-based Song Zu by parent company Songtradr earlier this year.

Samantha Schilling of Songtradr brought her perspective from working in Brazil and with a mostly Latin American music business. She pointed out the differing standards that separate her business with that of the U.S. and how the two regions might learn from each other. For example, she said, while commonplace in the U.S., some Latin American countries prohibit work for hire agreements for songs written for TV/film. She said this helps songwriters maintain ownership and secure royalties on the backend.

“With Vidgo’s app available on connected TV and streaming devices, including Roku, Vizio, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, as well as Android and iOS mobile devices, our subscribers now have unlimited access to their favorite shows, sports and news at home and on the go,” CEO Derek Mattsson said in a statement.