VIZIO’s Jump View Bridges The Linear/Streaming Gap

There are not that many areas where European TV is ahead of American TV, but the ability to easily and seamlessly move between a broadcaster’s linear and streaming programming is one of them. Thanks to a new feature from VIZIO called “Jump View”, Americans may finally be catching up.

For some time now, I’ve been banging on about how it no longer makes sense for TV broadcast networks to maintain two sets of programming—one for streaming and one for linear. Especially because the hybrid ecosystem we now find ourselves in, with viewers happily entrenched on both streaming and linear, is the reality for most Americans and is not likely to disappear any time soon.

There are a host of reasons why the networks should look to integrate their linear and streaming offerings.

First, it creates confusion for consumers. What is the brand about? Is it the linear network? The streaming one? Why are they different and what is the difference between them? If I’m trying to get linear viewers to pony up for a subscription streaming app, then making a stronger connection between the two would seem to be in my best interest.

Second, it creates the inevitable impression that the “good” shows are on the streaming service, while the shows the networks don’t really care about are on linear. Now this is probably not true—linear TV makes networks a lot more money than streaming—but when Awards Season comes around and there are no linear shows nominated, consumers can’t help but notice.

Third, it makes cross-promotion really difficult. “Like this show? Unfortunately you can’t watch it on our streaming service where we have a completely different and unrelated group of shows from the ones you’re enjoying on our broadcast channel.”

Jump View not only eliminates these issues, it’s a fairly easy concept for consumers to get, no matter how tech unsavvy they may be.

At the end of a show a banner pops up and the viewer is prompted to go to the network’s app on their VIZIO TV to watch other available episodes of the show they’ve just watched on linear

This gives viewers a seamless way to jump back and forth between linear and streaming and to take advantage of the network’s streaming app in much the same way they might take advantage of MVPD VOD.

The technology is pretty straightforward as well—VIZIO uses their Inscape ACR technology to identify the show the viewer is watching. If the show is part of the Jump View program, a banner will show up at the end of the show asking the viewer(s) if they want to watch more episodes and they will seamlessly be taken to the streaming app.

Right now, it’s being tested by Fox on their new docu-comedy “Welcome to Flatch.” The Jump View banner will prompt viewers to continue watching additional episodes of the program or catch up on past episodes on the Fox Now App, where Fox is giving viewers the option to binge the first seven episodes of the season.

Perfect Companion for the Linear Resurgence

Far from being dead, linear TV is enjoying a rebound. We can see this in everything from the success of Paramount Network’s Yellowstone series which drew 14.7 million viewers for its season premiere last fall to the increasing popularity of linear-like channels on the FASTs.

The problem is that we’ve all gotten spoiled by being able to watch what we want when we want, so that coming into a show after it’s begun and not being able to start from the beginning feels punitive. At the same time, we also want to be able to binge something that we’ve watched and enjoyed if that option exists.

That’s as true for originals on the broadcast networks as it is for reruns on the FASTs. With something like Jump View that is no longer a problem and can help make the overall viewing experience far more enjoyable for viewers.

All that said, there are still a few wrinkles that need to be ironed out as the industry (hopefully) takes VIZIO’s lead and rolls out similar functionality across the ecosystem.

Primary among these is that many of the FASTs don’t yet have rights to stream the shows they have linear rights to on VOD. That is likely to change as consumers have come to expect the ability to deep dive into a show they’re enjoying and will likely be reflected in future contract deals, but for now it remains an issue.

There’s also the notion of which streaming app the viewer is taken to when they click on the banner—some shows are available via more than one app—but here I’d say it’s a matrix: does the broadcaster have its own app? If yes, then that’s where the viewer goes. If not, then viewers should be taken to whichever app is willing to pay the broadcaster the most for that privilege. Which, I suspect will soon become yet another point that is written into future rights deals: we pay you X dollars for the rights to syndicate these shows, in return you drive the Jump View (or similar) viewers to our app.

That way everyone wins, especially the hybrid viewer.