Younify TV, an app that consolidates streaming service watch lists to help viewers quickly find shows, is adding ad-supported services Tubi and Pluto TV to its free universal streaming guide.
The app started with major subscription services, but the popularity of free AVOD services persuaded Younify to expand its menu.
Fox-owned Tubi accounted for 1.3% of TV usage in September, according to Nielsen, more than Warner Bros. Discovery’s Max and Comcast NBCUniversal’s Peacock. Paramount’s Pluto TV accounted for 0.8%.
“We started with the most popular SVOD services, and now that we have begun to promote and market Younify in earnest — and given the growing popularity of FAST platforms — the time is right to add Pluto and Tubi into the mix,” said Jeff Lawrence, co-founder and CEO of MediaMall Technologies, which launched Younify in June.
“Plus, as free AVOD services don't always require viewers to create accounts and log in to watch, there was a bit more development work that needed to be done in order to ensure that they would seamlessly integrate into our interface,” Lawrence said. “Now that these are live, we are planning to add even more, while continuing to build additional features and compatibility with CTV devices in the near future."
MediaMall, founded in 2003, created PlayOn, a streaming video recorders which enables users to view and record videos from online content providers.
Younify is designed to solve the problem of too much choice in streaming. According to Nielsen’s Gracenote unit, the number of titles available to viewers has grown 40% to more than 1 million from 2021 to 2023.
Viewers take as much as 10 minutes to try to find something to watch, with 20% ultimately abandoning their search.
Younify takes in watchlists, continue watching and recommendations from the services a user subscribes to and puts them into a single platform. Viewers make a choice and Younify launches the appropriate app and plays the show.
In the next few months, Younify plans to introduce platform-agnostic recommendations based on personal viewing behavior.
Younify does not have a business relationship with the streaming services. Users decide which apps that they use will be part of the guide.
Younify is free. The company plans to monetize what it learns about viewers’ behavior and preferences.
"Our plan is to gain scale, which will give us the ability to aggregate (non-personally identifiable) viewer behavior data that can be licensed to streaming services, measurement companies and advertising agencies,” Lawrence said.
“We are also having active discussions to form partnerships with platforms to license our technology and integrate it into theirs in order to enhance their user experience and search-and-discovery capabilities,” he said.
