Vizio has reached agreements with Disney, Lionsgate, Sony and more to build out an AVOD library to accompany the free, ad-supported linear channels on its WatchFree+ streaming service.
WatchFree+ will now offer more than 4,000 free movies, TV shows and Vizio exclusives to SmartCast TV users from more than 17 content and studio partners. Partners include Disney (Daredevil, Confessions of a Shopaholic and Alien Resurrection); Lionsgate (Southpaw, The Founder and Lion); Sony Pictures (Air Force One, Tears of the Sun and Stealth); and MGM (The Boondock Saints, The Lazarus Effect and The Woman in Black 2).
Vizio SmartCast will also be the exclusive connected TV platform for a limited release of Season 5 of LOL Networks’ “Cold as Balls,” in which Kevin Hart interviews professional athletes submerged in a locker room ice bath.
“Today’s audiences want quality on demand movies and TV shows on their own terms. Vizio’s AVOD offering gives SmartCast users an extensive catalog of free programming for them to enjoy whenever they want, all with easy search and discovery capabilities,” said Mike O’Donnell, chief revenue officer at Vizio, in a statement. “With the evolution of WatchFree+ on demand programming, SmartCast users can now browse through hundreds of shows and movies to watch at any time, for free, and without any subscriptions or logins required.”
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Vizio CFO Adam Townsend this week appeared at a Wells Fargo investor conference to discuss how his company intends to grow its average revenue per user in the connected TV space through advertising and subscription revenue share models. He said his company is still fairly new to ad sales in the smart TV space but said it’s working to increase awareness about targeting, frequency capping and other features it offers, which Townsend said should help grow Vizio’s CPMs.
Vizio is using its first-party data to increase awareness of content on its platform and hopefully get users to watch more, especially content that the company can make money off of. Townsend added that Vizio has “barely cracked the code yet” on growing advertising revenue from its home screen, which he called a “digital billboard in the living room.” Vizio said that it has 15 separate “monetizable units” on its home screen.
Vizio’s continued investment in its operating system includes adding a payment processing system so it can start claiming revenue share from subscription services purchased on its platform.
“Today, we get a small bounty off of as a referral but we’re not in the ecosystem because we’re not processing the financial transaction every month. Roku does that and it’s a not insignificant part of their total ARPU as I understand it. That’s a place where we’re just very small,” said Townsend.