9Now has announced its “most significant transformation since its launch” in the Nine Upfronts today, in what the broadcaster is calling an Australian-first transformation.
The market-leading user experience (UI) redesign will give users complete control of their viewing experience, offering an amalgamated experience of interactive digital and broadcast content.
The upgrade will include an innovative 9Now homepage, offering viewers the choice to start streaming content immediately, a “start over” option for live programs to be started from the beginning, personalised household profiles and the introduction of a “discover” package.
The redesign will also introduce a new 24/7 Free Ad-Supported Streaming TV (FAST) channel with exclusive additional content and an interactive advertising experience on connected TVs (CTV), offered live in full HD.
Australian-first interactivity
The newly introduced interactivity of 9Now will provide new opportunities for advertisers, with the rollout of sponsored content and products expanding. In 2023, 9Now will see interactive “shoppable” ads on CTV, giving viewers the option to interact with brands directly from their television, all to create an Australian-first immersive shopping experience.
With live minutes of 9Now growing by 63 per cent for the calendar year to date, Nine’s chief product officer Bec Haagsma said of the redesign: “Over the next 12 months, 9Now will completely reshape how television is consumed with a focus on a streaming-first product. With a dynamic homepage transformation, viewers will enter 9Now with live content streaming in full HD without having to click on a show.
“If viewers miss the start of a program on linear, they can go to 9Now and hit ‘start over’ – a feature that allows audiences to control their free-to-air live streaming experience like never before.”
Faster than before
Changes to the UI aren’t all, with the redesign seeing user experience of sports get an upgrade with live sports will now streaming in HD at 50 frames per second with Dolby 5.1 sound, offering an Australian first in live sports streaming.
Advertising will also stream in HD, with 9Now furthering its investment in the Live infrastructure, 9Now will offer stand-alone, exclusive FAST channels that have been specially designed for an immersive viewing experience.
Hamish Turner, director of programming at 9Now said: “With viewers migrating to IP consumption, 9Now will increasingly become the destination to consume the best in news, sport and entertainment. We’re ensuring the platform evolves to provide consumers – and advertisers – with the simplicity of broadcast television combined with the high tech and interactivity of digital streaming.”
Target reframing
The targeting of content and advertising has also received a redesign, with 9Now adding household location targeting to the platform.
This targeting is achieved by leveraging declared postcode data from signed-in authenticated viewers, with segments spanning capital cities to regional areas.
Closing out 9Now’s holistic transformation is a new partnership announced with Mastercard, which will see targeting based on credit card transaction data that will be made available across 9Now in the months to come.