ClixTV, a mobile-centric guide to what is streaming, hits 6 million monthly users nearly a year after its launch

Exclusive: ClixTV, the privately funded mobile-focused guide to the ever-expanding world of movies and TV shows available to stream, surpassed 6 million monthly unique users nearly a year after launch.

The free app, which launched about 10 months ago, is now available through over 80 distribution points, including Apple Fire TV, Roku, and other major streaming gateways. According to the company, more than 99% of consumption so far has been on mobile devices, looking at the app for top-rated series and movies, new trailers and other recommended offers, filtered by category and platform.

Sharing revenue with subscription streamers, a profit center for tech giants, is not a strategic goal for Clix, which was founded as a company in 2017. Instead, its efforts are directed towards advertising and sponsorship. . By answering quizzes, providing reviews and ratings, and other in-app activities, viewers can redeem points for discounts from trading partners. More than 8 million users have signed up for Clix, allowing you to send daily mass emails with more broadcast style.

Stacy Jolna, Clix founder and chief marketing officer, previously led TiVo’s marketing at the turn of the millennium and was senior vice president and general manager of News Corp./TV Guide’s digital television group. CNN producer.

In an interview, Jolna told Deadline that she sees a connection between her career as an alma mater and Clix. In particular, the on-screen guides developed by News Corp. (not to be confused with the TV Guide channel that became PopTV) have become a profitable large-scale business and served a similar purpose to Jolna’s in the crowded television landscape. of today. indicated. Clix is ​​not meant to grab the viewer’s attention every day; He basically he’s trying to prove he’s a messy person.

“Finding something to watch is the source of so much friction with viewers,” he said. “We are seeing the loyalty of the people who come back to us because they feel we can remove some of that friction from the process.”

The selection comes from a combination of artificial intelligence and editorial curation. Instead of being a pure discovery tool, an increasingly crowded category whose players compete with the big tech and pay-TV portals, Clix combines advertising and e-commerce with trailers and other shorter marketing and programming formats.

Founder and CEO Ed Sullivan, who once oversaw branding and design firm Pittard-Sullivan, which has managed dozens of rebranding and rebranding efforts for television networks and media companies, positions Clix “at the intersection of entertainment, technology. and e-commerce. “

Clix says it’s backed by around $ 10 million from high net worth individuals and families, although no investors have been identified. The firm’s attorneys include Mark Greenberg, a former HBO and Showtime executive who led the premium joint venture Epix as CEO from its inception through to the acquisition of MGM.

Greenberg, who is interested in Clix but not officially an investor, says the company “appears to have carved its own niche out of the fight.” With almost zero programming costs and no intention of trying to destroy trillion-dollar tech companies, the company “is not a militarist in the streaming wars, but rather a friendly ally of the major streamers, guiding users to the most important talent. The ocean of fun today.