Amazon’s Fire TV is trying a new method for helping viewers figure out what to watch, with quick interactive games via the IMDb What to Watch app and a voice remote.
The new app launched exclusively on Fire TV on Thursday.
Fire TV users can download the app or access it via Alexa. It features a trio of interactive mini-games, and after users play, surfaces customized recommendations for movie and TV series across multiple streaming services.
Game options include “Quick Draw” which consists of virtual playing cards that shuffle through movies and series options in a game of chance that quickly reveals three options. If none of those titles pique viewers interest, they can click “deal cards” for a new set of recommendations.
A second game is called “Watch Challenge” where players watch, rate, and collect digital stamps while they view a selection of IMDb title lists, including the IMDb Top 250 movie lists. It features frequently updated theme lists
The third game, “This or That” aims to help people pick a movie or series that suits their current mood and narrow down the options, be it romance, family films or horror. Players can refresh choices or their desired viewing time before choices are surfaced.
Once users pick a movie or TV show, they can see where the title is available to stream and start watching by clicking the Fire TV Alexa voice remote.
Another way to narrow down options is the ability to prioritize titles from users’ favorite streaming services with a “Your Services” feature. IMDb plat to launch new games on the What to Watch app, such as “Build-a-Cast” and “Time Machine.”
Narrowing down and finding what to watch is a consumer pain point that’s risen as more and more content across different platforms becomes available.
According to Nielsen data, the amount of available video content jumped 18% from February 2021 to February 2022. Gracenote listed more than 817,000 unique program titles across U.S. traditional TV services and streaming (with many of those featuring hundreds of individual episodes and chapters).
And viewers plan to continue streaming content, as a new survey from Tubi found the average person expects to stream more than 290 different movies and TV shows this year, totaling 437 hours of content.
Some are looking to aggregate subscription services in one place as a way to alleviate an overload of platform options, like Verizon’s introduction of +play. Free streaming platform Plex in April introduced new upgrades with a one-stop navigation window that lets users search for where to watch content across all of their paid and free streaming services, in an aim to solve “the streaming struggle.”
As for Amazon, last month it rebranded IMDbTV, its free ad-supported streaming service, as Amazon Freevee.