Hoping to tap into the fact that one in four U.S. consumers are now viewing free curated video services daily, DirecTV is working with programmers like A&E, Fox, Lionsgate, Scripps and others to distribute an lineup of popular FAST (free ad-supported streaming TV) channels on MyFree DirecTV.
MyFree DirecTV, an app-based free streaming service, will offer more than 70 FAST channels and on-demand content across a wide variety of genres.
Available channels include MovieSphere, Court TV, Fox Weather, El Rebel Rey, Dog Whisperer, Women’s Sports Network, and many more across popular genres including sports, food and travel, news, entertainment and comedy. The full lineup of FAST channels currently available can be found here.
DirecTV also announced that it plans to continue to grow the programming available to MyFree DirecTV customers regularly, with multiple Fremantle channels expected to join the lineup before year-end.
In the near future, DirecTV also plans to offer genre-based paid programming packages that deliver smaller lineups of relevant channels that will complement MyFree DirecTV. This will give consumers the flexibility to access affordable, personalized TV subscriptions with programming they enjoy at lower price points, it said.
Those genre-based programming packages were a key part of its recent distribution deal with Disney.
New customers can set up a MyFree DirecTV account on Roku and will soon be able to sign up and watch across Amazon Fire TV, Android and Apple devices this week, as well as via the DirecTV app.
“DirecTV is excited to bring a successful history of premium content aggregation and an elevated user experience to free TV for the first time,” MyFree DirecTV General Manager Kent Rees said. “The availability of MyFree DirecTV is the building block of the future for us as we tap into an entirely new audience through this new freemium experience going beyond the traditional pay TV customer.”
MyFree DirecTV is built on the same premium experience on the DirecTV app that is available to DirecTV streaming customers today. Introduced earlier this year, that Your TV experience combines a user’s selected favorites with their most watched content to immediately offer personalized programming from the moment the TV is turned on.
The launch will open up new advertising opportunities for DirecTV.
“We are excited about the new audiences that MyFree DirecTV unlocks for our advertising clients,” Amy Leifer, chief advertising sales officer at DirecTV Advertising, said. “Reaching viewers and delivering positive outcomes are what we do best. This launch marks another way that we are delivering innovative solutions that help move the needle for them.”
