Vizio of late has doubled down on improving its SmartCast streaming platform and its WatchFree+ service. WatchFree+ now ranks as the number two free ad-supported app on SmartCast – behind YouTube – according to Vizio’s chief revenue and strategic growth officer Mike O’Donnell.
“We’ve been able to add a lot of different touchpoints,” O’Donnell said at the Piper Sandler Grwoth Frontiers investor conference on Wednesday. “Whether that be the button on the remote, the app itself, the promotional tools and additional custom carousels…to make our consumers aware of what’s available.”
WatchFree+ touts hundreds of free channels, including CNN, Fox Sports, Hallmark, NBC News Now and more.
Vizio revamped the WatchFree+ app about a year ago, and most recently stated 16.1 million Vizio TV users are actively engaged with the SmartCast platform. O’Donnell noted Vizio is “continuing to grow our active user base” for SmartCast.
He emphasized the importance of user experience, particularly search and discovery, for Vizio’s smart TV and streaming growth.
“With more players entering both subscription and AVOD [services], search and discovery is critically important,” he said. O’Donnell pointed to the SmartCast home screen, which helps Vizio customers determine what they most likely want to watch, based on their viewing habits.
SmartCast accomplishes this by aggregating streaming apps, similar to what companies like Roku and Plex are doing on their respective platforms. Vizio has taken aggregation one step further, launching last month Vizio Account, a tool that lets users more easily track their subscriptions.
“I think controlling that entry point into the home, helping manage search and discovery, will be a big boost for us,” said O’Donnell.
He added Vizio is looking to further tap into connected TV ad dollars. O’Donnell said Vizio users are spending over half of their time on streaming apps – but only about 22% of ad dollars are flowing into connected TV.
“So there’s this huge gap in between eyeballs and ad dollars, that we think will drive a good opportunity for us in the future,” he said.
Companies are trying to enhance CTV advertising. Google, for instance, recently increased CTV inventory options within its digital campaign platform.
“Our first party viewing data is best in class in the market, our ability to recognize what is happening on the glass and be able to turn that into segments available for advertisers…we think it’ll continue to help us drive up CPM on the addressable side,” O’Donnell went on to say.
One of Vizio’s goals with addressable advertising, he continued, is by “taking those viewing segments, being able to marry them in a household and extend those campaigns onto mobile or desktop.”
Vizio can capture the data of a viewer watching the NFL’s Sunday Night Football, for instance, and combine it with an ad partner’s data to serve better targeted ads, O’Donnell explained. Viewers might see ads on the following day prompting them to watch say, Monday Night Football.
“It’s a great value prop, it helps expand our total addressable market and I think it’s helped increase the total deal sizes we’ve gotten in the market,” he said.
Vizio is also aiming to bridge the gap between linear and streaming with an interactive ad overlay known as Jump View. With this technology, viewers watching linear TV may see an ad that would prompt them to continue watching their program on a streaming service, for instance.
Though Vizio previously stated its hardware sales have flatlined, increasing only by 5% year-on-year in Q2, O’Donnell said he thinks the supply chain is “in a good place right now.”
“We just announced we’re rolling out our new lineup of televisions,” he said. “I think not only is it the next phase of great hardware at a great value price, but a lot of the new benefits and features I think help us a lot on the streaming side.”
Such features include better picture quality, he added, and Wi-Fi 6 capabilities for faster streaming.