Unlike market leaders Samsung, LG and Vizio, most of these smaller OEMs don't have the resources to create and manage their own TVOS.

According to research firm Parks Associates, Samsung leads the industry with over a quarter of all consumers’ primary smart TVs, followed by LG, Sony, Vizio and TCL.

With CTV, content providers would have to manage and control the user experience across at least six disparate operational systems: Samsung, Vizio, LG, Roku and Apple TV. If TV manufacturers choose to offer up the placement opportunities for programmatic buying directly to the advertiser, content providers would be in an even worse position.

“I am beyond grateful to be here today,” said Wang. “Finally getting home after the accident was one of the best moments of my life. I remember thinking how much I loved being home, and from this thought, VIZIO was born.”

Wang had a newfound appreciation for home life, and for making it better. It was a propitious time to shift his focus to making better-looking and more useful televisions.

And that other alternative measurement providers like VideoAmp and Innovid are getting their due too. Ditto purveyors of alternative panel data like TVision and purveyors of national representative panels like VIZIO. (The latter two provide a way to figure out exactly who in the household is watching the TV.)

In this WTF article, he breaks down what that means for the TV viewership data that is accumulated by listening and what companies like LG, Roku, Samsung and Vizio are doing with it. Read (and watch) WTF is automatic content recognition here.

Vizio, meanwhile, refreshed its FAST user experience with a more intuitive programming guide and also nabbed $200 million in Upfront commitments from advertisers in 2022, inclusive of its WatchFree+ service – which Adam Bergman, group VP of Advertising and Data Sales at Vizio indicated was a big draw for buyers.

Needham cut VIZIO Holding Corp. (NYSE: VZIO) price target from $16 to $11. Needham analyst Laura Martin maintained a Buy rating on the stock. VIZIO Holding shares rose 4.2% to $8.28 in pre-market trading.

SVOD service Hallmark Movies Now is now available on Vizio Smart TVs. Vizio Smart TV owners can find Hallmark Movies Now in the Vizio Content Store and subscribe to Hallmark Movies Now for $5.99/month.

Vizio is integrating interactive advertising capabilities in its WatchFree+ FAST service using Brightline’s Accelerator program. It’s the first smart TV integration for Accelerator, with Vizio the first smart-TV manufacturer to offer advertisers interactive and shoppable ads. Advertisers can use the interactive tech to enhance existing 30-second ads within WatchFree+.

Hallmark Media has confirmed that its SVoD service, Hallmark Movies Now, is now available on VIZIO Smart TVs. The launch comes as the service closes out its annual holiday programming stunt Movies & Mistletoe, which features beloved Hallmark holiday programming, and gears up for a strong January line-up of offerings, including hit films such as The Wedding Veil, The Wedding Veil Unveiled, and The Wedding Veil Legacy, as well as The Perfect Pairing, Girlfriendship, and more.

The topic came up again during a July 2022 episode of her Vizio WatchFree+ series, @Home With Tori.

Vizio is integrating interactive advertising capabilities in its WatchFree+ free, ad-supported streaming (FAST) service, via a partnership with Brightline.

Vizio is using Brightline’s Accelerator program, which is already used to enable dynamic and shoppable ads on Hulu, Peacock, Discovery+ and other platforms.

What all these companies’ strategies have in common is zero-party data. They’re not buying data from someone else; they’re not sharing it with someone else. Their customers know that they’re opting into a two-way relationship with Kamera Express, American Airlines or PepsiCo, and they know that they’re going to be receiving something in return for the information given. A mutually beneficial value exchange.

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Vizio is dialing up interactivity for ads that air on the smart TV maker’s free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) service WatchFree+ though a partnership with Brightline.

It marks the first smart TV integration for Brightline and its OTT Accelerator product, which is already used to power interactive, dynamic and shoppable ads on Hulu, Peacock and Discovery+, among others.

“Many of the new currencies use Vizio [ACR] data, but projecting household viewing based on usage of Vizio smart TVs will not produce a complete picture, as 86% of households with one Vizio TV have other TVs from other brands,” points out the analysis. “Even in households with two Vizio TVs, other brands of TVs are present in 70% of cases. To make matters worse, not all the TVs in a smart-TV household are smart.”

So should VIZIO Holding (NYSE:VZIO) shareholders be worried about its cash burn? In this article, we define cash burn as its annual (negative) free cash flow, which is the amount of money a company spends each year to fund its growth. Let's start with an examination of the business' cash, relative to its cash burn.

The effort is designed to make ads part of a more engaging viewing experience for millions of VIZIO households and is made possible through a first-of-its-kind Smart TV partnership with BrightLine and its OTT Accelerator offering, the same technology powering interactive, dynamic and shoppable advertising on Hulu, Peacock, Discovery+ and many others. The partnership makes VIZIO the first Smart TV manufacturer to give advertisers the ability to enhance their ads with interactive elements ranging from trivia to dynamic messaging.

Vizio is adding interactive commercial breaks to channels on its WatchFree Plus free streaming platform by working with dynamic advertising company Brightline.

Ad breaks on Vizio can include trivia questions to engage viewers, provide users with an opportunity to click to find out more about products, scroll through available colors for a car they are considering buying, or shop via an interactive catalog.

VIZIO's New Calibration Panel For ACR
Vizio’s Inscape launched a first of its kind calibration panel for its ACR data this week in a move that should quiet down some of ACR’s naysayers.

A calibration panel is essentially what it sounds like: a way to make sure that the ACR data Inscape collects from its 21 million opted-in users is in line with the size of those groups as per U.S. Census data.

Another key trend revealed was that consumers are not very loyal to TV set brands, creating another measurement challenge for the industry. Many of the new currencies use Vizio data but projecting household viewing based on usage of Vizio smart TVs will not produce a complete picture as 86% of households with one Vizio TV have other TVs from other brands. Even in households with two Vizio TVs, other brands of TVs are present in 70% of cases.