Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Audio / Video
  3. News

Vizio brings new channels, features to its booming WatchFree+ streaming service

By
A Vizio WatchFree promo image.
Vizio

California-based TV maker Vizio announced today that WatchFree+, its free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) service, is dialing things up in the wake of what it’s calling “record growth.” That means it’s adding new features and expanding its channel and title offerings by partnering with Warner Bros. Discovery, Lionsgate, and more.

Since adding the “Plus” to its name in 2021, Vizio’s WatchFree+ streaming service, which is available on its SmartCast TVs, has seen steady growth — the service also recently added Philo to its smart TVs. In today’s announcement, Vizio says that viewing hours for the service have more than doubled in the past year, according to their own internal data.

Recommended Videos

Until today, the service boasted 260-plus free channels of live local TV, movies, shows, news, sports, kids programming, and more, with an additional library of more than 6,000 on-demand titles. With today’s announcement, WatchFree+ now boosts those numbers to 300 channels, 15,000 on-demand titles, and 10 Vizio-curated channels that are programmed in-house, it says.

Please enable Javascript to view this content

Contributing to those new numbers is some “premium programming” that Vizio has added to WatchFree+, including channels, shows, and other on-demand content from its new expanded partnerships with Warner Bros. Discovery, Lionsgate, Sony, and Electric Entertainment.

Philo on Vizio smart TVs.
Philo

Highlights of that programming includes 11 new channels from Warner Bros. Discovery, such as Bachelor Nation, and shows including reality series Say Yes to the Dress, and the Maggie Q drama Nikita. From Lionsgate, WatchFree+ gets six new Lionsgate-branded channels, including MovieSphere by Lionsgate that will show blockbuster films, Ebony TV by Lionsgate, which is tailored to Black audiences, and women’s channel HerSphere by Lionsgate. Lionsgate will also add the game show Celebrity Name Game and reality thriller show Ghost Hunters to the roster in the near future. On offer from independent movie and TV production house Electric Entertainment is a “24/7 channel of the cult-classic and drama series Leverage,” which is exclusive to WatchFree+, and a forthcoming ElectricNow FAST channel.

Related

Vizio also announced the addition of new channels to its own curated special interest programming lineup that already includes its crime show channel Investigation and the food and travel channel Fork & Flight. Making it an even 10, Vizio adds Comedy Club that features stand-up specials and documentaries on comedians, and Valor, a channel dedicated to movies and series about the American military.

Lastly, Vizio’s announcement today included some menu and navigation updates to WatchFree+’s Electronic Program Guide, including new categories such as History, Documentaries, Nature + Science, and Mood + Ambiance.

“WatchFree+ has solidified its position as the premium, free streaming destination for Vizio households, thanks to our ever-expanding content offering, major studio and network partnerships, and enhanced user experience,” said Katherine Pond, group vice president of Platform Content & Partnerships. “With these latest programming additions and product updates, WatchFree+ continues to deliver an entertainment experience that consumers love.”

Editors’ Recommendations

Topics
Derek Malcolm
Derek Malcolm
Contributing Editor, A/V
Derek Malcolm is a contributing editor and evergreen lead for the A/V and Home Theater section of Digital Trends. Derek…
How to watch The Weather Channel without cable
The Weather Channel on Roku.

There are a million ways to get information on the weather these days. Windows, for one. Computers for another. Random people on Instagram and TikTok who suddenly are experts in meteorology for a third. But for a lot of folks, it's still all about The Weather Channel — the ubiquitous channel that, appropriately enough, is all about The Weather. On a Channel.

And, unfortunately, it's time for many in Florida and the rest of the Southeast to keep their eyes glued on The Weather Channel as Hurricane Milton makes landfall this week in the Tampa Bay Area before cleaving its way through the center of the state. Miami looks like it should mostly be spared. Same goes for Northwest Florida, where I live. But models are also starting to show a possible follow-up storm later in the month.

Read more
The 10 most popular streaming services, ranked by subscriber count
The Netflix home screen.

When you're comparing the best streaming services, there are plenty of metrics to go by. Comparing them only by their number of subscribers isn't exactly a fair fight. After all not all streaming services are available worldwide. The number of subscribers doesn't exactly address the "worth" of a service, much less whether the app is easy to use. It doesn't even touch on whether the catalog of programming is good, or has what you want to watch on it, which is truly the best metric out there.

However, when we look at total subscriber counts, we can see how each service does from a global perspective. Considering we're looking at everything from streaming giants like Netflix and Hulu, to newer services like Apple TV Plus. For this post, we're not talking about free (FAST) streaming services or live TV streaming services, but the big VOD services.

Read more
The best way to watch free OTA TV is finally on Apple TV
The Tablo over-the-air TV streaming device with an Apple TV 4K.

You can now use the fourth-generation Tablo with Apple TV. That's it. That's the tweet. OK, I'll expand. That means you can now use the best device for watching free, over-the-air (OTA) broadcast channels on what we consider to be the best streaming hardware you can buy.

It's been a long time coming. This fourth-gen Tablo has been available for about a year. And in that time, it's worked great on the major platforms like Roku and Amazon Fire TV. You connect an antenna to the Tablo, fire up the app, and watch — and record — free broadcast channels on multiple devices. And you can do so on up to four devices at once, depending on whether you get the two- or four-channel Tablo. You'll also get a number of free, ad-supported channels — because you can't go anywhere in 2024 without running into a FAST channel.

Read more