Flipboard TV Rolls Out for All U.S. Users

Content-curation platform Flipboard unveiled new options for both users and brands Thursday: The rollout of Flipboard TV to everyone in the U.S., the addition of pre-roll ads and new video feeds throughout its platform. Flipboard CEO Mike McCue said in an interview that the video additions being released Thursday are “probably the single biggest thing we’ve done for the Flipboard experience in years. It builds on all of the work we’ve been doing to make Flipboard the ultimate curation ecosystem. Videos can be curated and put in Storyboards or Magazines.” Curated video service Flipboard TV debuted in March with 16 channels, exclusively on Samsung Galaxy S20 phones. While Galaxy device owners still have exclusive access to premium content, users on all devices now have free access to thousands of videos from global publishers, local TV stations and independent producers, along with the option to upgrade from the free, ad-supported experience to a subscription-based, ad-free model. Hundreds of publishers are now providing video feeds on Flipboard, including A360 Media, Bonnier, Complex Networks, Group Nine Media, Minute Media, Penske Media (Rolling Stone, Variety), The Recount, Refinery29 and Vice Media Group. Video from Euronews, Tribune Publishing and dozens of other publishers is also available via a new partnership with VideoElephant. All of that content is joined by videos from hundreds of independent producers, including video journalist Johnny Harris and filmmaker Gene Nagata (Potato Jet) through a new partnership with influencer agency Spacestation Integrations, as well as AudPop’s filmmakers, Underknown (producer of video series such as What If and How to Survive) and entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk. “A lot of our publisher partners have an amazing back catalog of videos,” Flipboard vice president of global growth and business development Claus Enevoldsen pointed out in an interview. “It’s evergreen content. You can bring it to life with Flipboard, bring it into Storyboard and repurpose it.” Flipboard TV is accessible via a new section in the application’s content guide, and video now plays natively on the platform, improving recommendations and giving users additional controls, including the ability to skip to the next video. Brands can now run pre-roll ads on Flipboard to take advantage of all of this new video content, and the company said this new option addresses growing demand for high-quality, brand-safe mobile video. McCue said the addition of pre-roll ads gives publishers “access to a whole new, super-quality audience, diving into their interests and their passions,” and they gain more monetization opportunities and more revenue through a process that is additive to what they’re doing on other platforms, without much additional work. “They really believe in the Flipboard ecosystem,” he added. Flipboard said Lexus was one of the first brands to run pre-roll ads on its platform, and the luxury automaker featured videos from its national brand campaign. The platform’s revenue-share model gives publishers and creators a new income source. Finally, media companies and creators that publish video on Flipboard will see a new video tab on their profile pages, and the platform’s local sections now boast more videos from local newspapers and TV stations. Flipboard added dedicated video-only feeds for 20 topics such as lifestyle, local, news, politics, sports and travel, and videos are also more prominent in users’ feeds. “Packaging all types of content together is really where we shine,” McCue said. “We really inform and inspire people around things they love.”