Popcornflix, an ad-supported over-the-top VOD provider, has inked a deal to add five morning shows from O2 Media to its U.S. library that have been running on Lifetime.
The new additions include The Balancing Act, Designing Spaces, Mission Makeover, All Mixed Up, as well as the VOD premiere of Access Health, a show that premiered on Lifetime last fall.
Popcornflix, a free VOD service that competes with offerings such as Crackle and TubiTV, inserts pre-roll, mid-roll and banner ads in all movies and TV shows using Google’s DoubleClick platform.
The new programming from O2 Media is Popcornflix’s first in the lifestyle genre. Popcornflix supports platforms that include the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One, Roku, iOS, Android, Windows 8, as well as Samsung, Bravia, Panasonic smart TVs. The company has plans to launch soon on the Amazon Fire TV platform and on the Google Chromecast.
“As the Popcornflix audience grows, it is crucial to keep expanding our library with new genres and fresh content,” David Fannon, EVP of Popcornflix, said in a statement. “These shows represent our commitment to give our users a diverse and exciting viewing experience. We are proud to make O2 Media’s popular morning shows available for free streaming anywhere from your phone, to your computer, to your TV.”
Popcornflix, a service of Screen Media Ventures, launched in March 2011 by tapping into a deep library of independent films that originated from the DVD boom in the early 2000s. It’s offered in more than 50 countries.
“We thought there was space that was available in the A-VOD marketplace, so we crated Popcornflix… to utilize our library of more than 2,000 films,” Fannon, a former A&E executive, said in a recent interview. “I look at Crackle as what we can be, and that’s where we’ll be at the next step…The space is open. It’s the wild west right now.”
For 2015, he said the plan is to ramp up consumer marketing and to strike partnerships that yield bigger films and some exclusives for Popcornflix.
