Vizio updates user experience for WatchFree+ FAST service

Vizio’s free ad-supported streaming TV service WatchFree+ is getting a refreshed brand design and user experience, including a new entertainment programming guide.

According to Vizio, the new update features a more intuitive Electronic Program Guide (EPG) – the place where users go to browse linear channels in a familiar fashion similar to traditional pay TV or cable – with faster and easier navigation alongside more personalized features.

For the channel guide, WatchFree+ now shows upcoming content in a simple grid format, partitioned in 30-minute intervals. The guide also now provides in-line movie and TV show descriptions. Additionally, it’s added a picture-in-picture feature so users can keep watching a show while also browsing other free channels in the EPG.

Two other updates help with navigation, including the ability to long press the “Ok” remote button within the guide to jump to a list of channel genres, and enabling users to launch an on-demand movie or show directly from the guide.

WatchFree+, which is built into millions of Vizio smart TVs, offers more than 260 free channels and 6,000 titles on-demand.

On the personalization front, the company said an updated interface allows advertisers to showcase content that’s contextually relevant within the programming guide. Advertising is a key piece of the WatchFree+ FAST service for Vizio. Increasing user engagement on the platform is one aim of WatchFree+, which in turn helps fuel advertiser interest. Vizio this year scored $200 million in upfront commitments, with the FAST service playing a key role.

“WatchFree+ is the crown jewel as one of our most compelling and important assets where advertisers see unique and distinct value," Adam Bergman, group VP of Advertising and Data Sales at Vizio, told Fierce earlier this year, regarding Upfront commitments.

The refreshed user experience comes after Vizio reported third quarter earnings this week, where its Platform Plus business exceeded revenue expectations – reaching a quarterly record of $128 million and accounting for nearly 30% of Vizio revenue. Platform Plus includes the streaming SmartCast platform as well as WatchFree+.  

“We are proud of the growth we have seen across our free streaming service,” Steve Yum, VP of Software Product Management at Vizio, in a statement. "This redesign makes it easier than ever to navigate and explore the continually expanding universe of entertainment on WatchFree+ across live and on demand programming.”

Since Vizio launched WatchFree+, the service has grown to become the second-most popular free ad-supported streaming app on Vizio.

As a smart TV interface provider, Vizio benefits from glass-level ACR (automatic content recognition) data from Inscape, that helps inform personalization for channel discovery and delivers information into what users are watching most. According to Vizio, the data also helps inform choices and programming of Features channels such as food and travel, true crime, sci-fi, horror, American classics, action, and special holiday pop-up channels.

Vizio said crime is one of the most popular genres on WatchFree+ and has expanded programming with the pop-up channel Jail from Langley Productions, the creators of the long-running reality series “COPs.”

Another top performer on WatchFree+ is single-series channels, according to Vizio. As TVREV’s Alan Wolk has pointed out to Fierce, single-series channels (which run episodes of the same show 24/7) give viewers an easy way to pop in and out of a show they know they enjoy without the need to select an episode each time – helping to combat content choice fatigue.

Vizio pointed to single-series favorites on its platform such as “Ice Road Truckers” from A+E, “America’s Test Kitchen” from PBS, “Hell’s Kitchen | Kitchen Nightmares “from FilmRise and recently added “Merlin,” a British fantasy adventure drama from Fremantle.

The WatchFree+ UX update is the latest for the smart TV maker, with Vizio last month adding a “My Watchlist” feature into its SmartCast-enabled TVs so users can save TV shows and movies form various supported streaming services in one centralized location

In the FAST space, other smart TV players have also been putting more emphasis on their free ad-supported services. Samsung, for example, recently rebranded the logo design of its Samsung TV Plus FAST. Sang Kim, SVO of Product and Marketing at Samsung, told Fierce in August that the company was doubling down on Samsung TV Plus, with investment focused most heavily on licensing higher quality premium content from industry partners.  

LG, meanwhile, has been growing its list of FAST channels, including content from Estrella Media, among others.