Independent TV OS player Zeasn has rebranded to Whale TV as it seeks to establish a consumer-facing brand, coinciding with with the company’s debut of its next-generation smart TV operating system.
Founded in 2011, the company has been working behind the scenes to deploy its Whale OS smart TV operating system, previously working solely with factories directly and therefore didn’t see as much need for brand recognition, according to Mike Duin, VP of Marketing & Communications at Whale TV.
Now the Singapore-headquartered company is aiming to build up a brand for itself to drive awareness and become a preferred operating system in the industry, as well as with consumers, he noted.
“Our brand was never visible on the UI, but that will change with the introduction of Whale OS 10,” Duin told StreamTV Insider via email. “The importance of an internationally recognizable name therefor became a priority.”
Whale TV may also be a bit easier for consumers than the Zeasn brand, as Duin acknowledged that in pronouncing the new name “there is simply less confusion.”
In announcing the rebrand, the company said the new Whale TV brand identity was developed “to position the brand as approachable, friendly, and fun.”
Whale TV currently powers 41.1 million monthly active TVs, working with more than 400 TV brands, including Philips, Sharp, and Vestel, with OS availability globally. Duin said Whale TV’s installed base is much bigger than that figure, but the monthly active TV number is the important one as those are the TVs that are essentially addressable TVs for content providers and advertisers.
Coinciding with the rebrand is the debut of its next-gen OS, Whale OS 10, powering TVs that are expected to start shipping in the first half of 2025. The updated OS and company rebrand comes amid a broader battle among TV OS developers to power the TV screen experience and capitalize on new avenues for monetization.
Whale TV hasn’t disclosed which OEMs have signed on to ship TVs running the latest OS, although Duin noted the company plans to announce partners closer to when the TVs come to market to help drive demand in stores.
“We play a pivotal role in enabling consumers to navigate the streaming world seamlessly, but also empower content partners and advertisers to reach engaged viewers,” said Jason He, CEO of Whale TV in a statement. “Licensing a TV operating system is simply the only way forward for most TV brands. We bring 13 years of experience to the table and are able to deliver a TV OS that is ready for global deployment and is tried and tested by millions of households.”
Whale TV+, content-first UX
One of the biggest updates to the Whale OS 10 is the revamping of a native free ad-supported streaming (FAST) service, Whale TV+.
The company is folding its owned and operated free ad-supported services rlaxx TV and Whale Live into a new built-in FAST service dubbed Whale TV+. Both rlaxx and Whale Live are ad-supported services that are already available on the Whale TV platform, with rlaxx also counting off-platform distribution.
According to Duin, in the next few months rlaxx TV and Whale Live will merge into the new Whale TV+ service. The rlaxx TV service will continue to be available on several platforms “for a while” and will rebrand to Whale TV+ over time, he said. The initial focus is the native FAST integration and rebrand of rlaxx TV on platforms where it’s already distributed. Then attention will turn to expanding availability of Whale TV+ to new platforms, which will be announced when they’re ready to launch, per Duin.
Integrating a native, free ad-supported streaming service into the OS is important for Whale TV as CTV advertising has become a revenue growth stream or opportunity for smart TV makers and those that license their TVOS to others.
Like other free ad-supported streaming services, Whale TV+ promises free content across genres including both live and on-demand. The company is “aiming for hundreds of FAST channels” on the service alongside on-demand content, Duin said. It’s working with content partners including Vevo, Gusto TV, Bloomberg, Lionsgate and Revry.
Other updates to the Whale TV OS aim to create a more content-first user experience, including with fewer menu levels and the use of AI-powered personalized recommendations.
Along with Whale TV+, the OS 10 includes a “Free TV” section in the navigation bar, featuring a selection of free programming from across apps, including Whale TV+. Whale TV also enables users to upload photos from their mobile devices to the TV and has two options for voice assistant, including a built-in AI-powered Whale TV voice assistant or Amazon’s Alexa. The native Whale TV voice assistant is powered by ChatGPT with support for large language models that the company said generates better recommendations and lets users interact with their TV in a more conversational manner.
The Whale TV OS has support for all tuner standards and localized in 68 languages.
Independent player in TVOS market
As mentioned, Whale TV is an independent TV OS player in an area where several companies are vying for share.
And as TVREV analyst Alan Wolk has pointed out, much of the TVOS opportunity still up for grabs is outside of the U.S., where others like Xperi’s TiVo and Titan OS are among independents also working to make a name for themselves.
Duin noted that Whale TV is “open to business across the globe” but said the most interesting markets are clearly those that have the most monetization potential and that the company has active conversations with brands that target North America.
“When it comes to monetization, North America is a very interesting region, with the highest CPMs and streaming already being close to the dominant form of distribution,” he said.
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Still, the U.S. already has plenty of players vying for share in TV OS, including Roku, Samsung, LG, Vizio, Google, Amazon and more recently Charter and Comcast’s Xumo and independents like VIDAA.
That said, as Wolk noted during a session at the StreamTV Show this summer – there’s room for more than winner in the competition for market share, where small gains can have a big impact and “every half percentage point can be worth millions of dollars.” And there could be interest internationally from OEMs that are looking for a TVOS partner outside of tech behemoths or those that may have their own added skin in the game from a hardware or content perspective.
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“Licensing a TV OS is the way forward, and we believe independent TV OS makers will play an important role in the TV OS wars,” Duin said. “We don’t compete with our partners with our own hardware and don’t have our own content slate where we drive users towards. We are not out there to poach their customer, we want to build this business together.
Whale TV shares in monetization with its TV brand partners, which Duin believes sets the company apart from other licensed TV operating systems on the market.
“This is an important factor for these TV brands, as it opens a new revenue stream that enables them to reinvest into their business,” he commented.