Vevo, the popular music video streaming platform, has announced the debut of its Vevo TV app on devices powered by the Google TV and Android TV operating systems, initially in Italy, United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom, France, Spain, Germany, Mexico and Brazil. Over time, the availability of the Vveo TV app will be expanded to more countries.
For those unfamiliar with it, Vevo is a music video platform, not only hosting official video releases from major music artists but also live performances and original content produced by Vevo. The Vevo TV app offers access to all this for free on connected TVs (directly or via streaming devices) thanks to the support of advertising: while watching the videos, from time to time, the app plays 15 or 30 second ad blocks not ignorable. To offer an ad-free view, the in-app ad load is low, with no more than one ad every 3-4 videos.
Vevo before debuting on Google TV and Android TV was accessible through YouTube, Samsung, Samsung TV Plus, Amazon Fire TV, Amazon Echo Show, PlutoTV, Apple TV, Roku devices, Comcast (Xfinity X1 and Xfinity Flex), VIZIO, Sky devices (NowTV and SkyQ), Foxxum, XITE, NetRange, Redbox, T-Mobile Play, Virgin Media, Xumo, Telstra and Vewd. Given the popularity of the Android TV operating system in the smart TV market, joined more recently by Google TV, the landing of Vevo was inevitable here too.
“Vevo’s mission is to maximize the commercial and promotional value of music video, an art form that blends sight, sound and movement and is a fundamental pillar of entertainment. So, as music video consumer listening trends continue to shift towards internet-enabled connected TVs (CTVs) in today’s world, we continue to expand our distribution to cater to consumers in actively frequenting environments.” said Kevin McGurn, president, sales & distribution at Vevo. “Google is a key international distribution channel for Vevo, as it brings a large global audience to our content as we are at the forefront of bringing music video programming back to TV screens at scale.”
“Music videos are not only insanely popular, they are powerful and highly engaging content because of the deep emotional connections they create with the viewer. (…) Vevo’s app uniquely offers advertisers the opportunity to appear alongside some of the most beloved and iconic music videos. With support for the Android TV operating system, brands can access even more inventory and more eyeballs, especially hard-to-reach consumers, such as wire cutters, and younger demographics, who don’t watch mainstream TV broadcasts.” McGurn explained.
Vevo recently updated its TV app to introduce new content search and discovery features and update the user interface to now reflect a live TV experience. Videos now autoplay when you log in to the app, and the more you watch content within the app, the more personalized the autoplay recommendations become over time. It is also possible to discover new videos by browsing through the available channels, which continuously broadcast videos in rotation grouped by genre.
“The Vevo TV app’s evolved user experience is the result of years of learning how home viewer behaviors are changing as TV and digital video converge. The connected television (CTV) space continues to be the largest audience growth area for music videos, and here at Vevo we’re building products that cater to how our fans want to watch.” McGurn said. “The demand for Vevo channels across all platforms has made it imperative to take an agile approach to content delivery. This will ensure that Vevo viewers can consume our content with the best experience. Pairing Vevo’s streamlined linear channel programming with Vevo’s on-demand video search and discovery in our advanced CTV app is poised to be a winning combination.”
The Vevo app is now also available in Italy on devices powered by Google TV and Android TV.