Vimeo unveils new TV apps
December 15, 2016
Video app specialist Vimeo has unveiled all-new TV applications for Apple tvOS, Android TV, and Samsung Smart TV, Vimeo’s first HTML5-based TV app on the Tizen operating system. The new apps introduce a complete rebuild of the Vimeo TV experience fully customised for watching and discovering content on these next-generation viewing platforms.
“We’ve built brand new native experiences for Apple TV and Android TV, and are introducing our first-ever HTML5-based TV app to provide the best possible viewing experience and promote greater content discovery,” said Will True, Senior Product Manager, TV Apps at Vimeo. “The apps now provide a cinematic experience that gets viewers immediately watching videos hand-curated by our in-house team, featuring the amazing ad-free content uploaded by the best filmmakers on Vimeo. We want people to know they can launch the app, lean back onto the couch, and have something incredible start playing right away without having to hunt for it.”
Key features within the new TV apps include:
- Curated Cinema Experience: Viewers can browse and watch curated videos featured prominently in a home page cinema experience. The selection is updated daily, featuring fresh, new videos hand-curated by Vimeo’s in-house editorial team from Vimeo’s worldwide community of filmmakers. For example, during the week of December11, the app will feature Vimeo’s Staff Picks Best of the Year 2016 collection – over an hour’s worth of the best videos uploaded to Vimeo throughout 2016.
- Auto-Play: Viewers can immediately start enjoying featured videos selected by Vimeo’s curators with a new auto-playing experience. For example, when viewers open the app the most-recent video will automatically start playing from the curated cinema experience, with the next video in queue to automatically play. At any time, viewers can simply navigate to other content types to start watching.
- Feed: Viewers can scroll through and watch from their customised video feed from people, categories and channels they follow on Vimeo.
- Library: Viewers can access their entire collection of purchased videos from Vimeo On Demand, along with content they’ve marked to Watch Later to easily continue viewing where they left off on other devices or choose to watch later in full HD on a big TV screen.
- Profile: Creators can access and watch their personal videos uploaded to Vimeo in gorgeous HD on the big screen from the comfort of their living rooms.
The new Apple tvOS and Android TV apps are available now, with tvOS offering the full feature-set highlighted above. Android TV launches with limited features and a phased roll out for the rest. The Samsung Smart TV app will launch in the coming weeks.