Today, Flipboard launched Flipboard TV, a new curated video service inside the Flipboard app featuring content from Flipboard’s publisher partners. In collaboration with top publisher partners as well as local TV stations across the U.S., Flipboard TV provides access to professionally produced short-form videos in a premium, ad-free service that viewers can customize based on their interests.
For the first three months, Flipboard TV is available exclusively to Samsung Galaxy S20 owners, who also receive a three-month free trial. The premium service, which will have video from over 100 sources at launch, will cost $2.99 per month after the free trial period.
Flipboard TV viewers will be able to choose from topical channels, such as News, Business, Politics, Entertainment, Tech, and Local, as well as dozens of specialized channels curated by publishers and Flipboard’s editorial team. The Entertainment channel, for instance, will consist of videos from Variety, Us Weekly and Rolling Stone; while the Business channel will feature content from Barron’s, Bloomberg Media, QuickTake by Bloomberg, The Wall Street Journal and MarketWatch; Politics will deliver videos from The Recount and others; and local news from KCRA (Sacramento, Calif.), WESH (Orlando, Fla.) and KCCI (Des Moines, Iowa.) In the coming weeks and months, Flipboard will add more channels and partners, and roll out the video service to additional devices.
“The launch of Flipboard TV builds on years of collaboration with the Samsung team, creating content experiences for each new generation of the Galaxy devices,” said Mike McCue, Flipboard’s co-founder and CEO. “Flipboard TV creates a new way for people to be informed and inspired with video from the best journalistic sources in a premium environment, while simultaneously providing a distribution platform for original video from world-class publishers.”
“Samsung continues to innovate to make your life and the things you love to do easier and better. Bringing Flipboard TV into the Galaxy experience gives people a new way to unlock high-quality short-form video, from their smartphone,” said Ignacio de Mingo, senior director and head of loyalty platforms, Samsung Electronics America. “As Flipboard takes its next leap in content discovery, we’re thrilled that Flipboard TV will be exclusively available on the Galaxy S20 line at launch.”
Brightcove’s Q2 2019 Global Video Index shows that video consumption on mobile devices—smartphones and tablets—grew to 53 percent of all video consumption globally and that number is expected to further increase in 2020. Moreover, surveys of Flipboard users have indicated they would like more video in the app.
“We welcome this initiative from a long-term partner to let more people discover original videos produced by our editorial teams,” said Daniel Bernard, SVP, Barron’s Group. “Video is one of the most engaging content types. Tapping into the potential of this content type, Flipboard TV represents an opportunity to broaden our audience.”
Flipboard TV increases access and choice of consumption methods to short-form video. Currently, this type of content is found either across a range of individual publisher sites, sometimes behind paywalls, or mixed in with user-generated content on social platforms. Flipboard TV provides a single place where people can watch high-quality videos from a wide range of premium publishers, curated both manually and algorithmically for their interests. Additionally, it also gives consumers the option to enjoy publisher videos in an ad-free experience.
“We look forward to bringing Recount’s premium short form news content to Flipboard TV to serve the vast audience on Flipboard,” said John Battelle, co-founder and CEO of Recount Media. “How Flipboard is thinking about premium content distribution and monetization creates a better model for the ecosystem and provides a vision for the future that we’re excited to collaborate on.”
Flipboard collaborates with thousands of world-class publishers to amplify their content; many of them have been investing in video in the last several years and are honing their distribution strategies. Flipboard TV provides a platform for this original content that is respectful of the creators, while simultaneously creating a new way for people to be informed and inspired with video from the best journalistic sources.
Flipboard TV is available in a new dedicated tab inside the Flipboard app. Users can follow topics, publishers, and curated video channels, which appear in a personalized video feed as well is in their existing “For You” feed.