Zone·ify Becomes First AVOD Platform to Launch Free Gaming Through TV Remote Controls
TORONTO, June 11, 2025--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Zone·ify, the rapidly growing free streaming platform, today announced the launch of a new feature: free interactive games playable instantly with an existing TV remote. In partnership with ES3 – the leading TV interactive engagement platform provider, the launch makes Zone·ify the first AVOD (Ad Supported Video on Demand) platform to offer native gaming as part of the core TV experience – no downloads, consoles, or mobile devices required. The games are now available on a wide range of streaming devices and cable and satellite providers, including Android TV, Fire TV, Comcast Xfinity TV, DIRECTV U-verse, Rogers Xfinity TV, and many others.
The launch follows the explosive success of The Border Brawl, Zone·ify's first exclusive live sporting event streamed from Niagara Falls, Canada which became the most-watched title in company history and drove a 13x increase in live watch time. Now available on demand, the event was a cross-border showdown of wrestling legends and reality stars that drew record-breaking viewership across the U.S. and Canada. Building on that moment, Zone·ify is taking the next step in redefining free entertainment.
"We're not just a streaming service anymore – we're a full-scale entertainment platform," said Doug Edwards, President of Zone·ify. "From the viral success of The Border Brawl and our rapidly growing library of content to the launch of TV gaming, we are evolving into a destination for watching, playing, and engaging – all in one place."
Now live with over a dozen casual games, Zone·ify's newest feature offers instant gameplay using nothing more than the TV remote – no downloads, no mobile devices, and no extra hardware required. The company has plans to rapidly expand its game catalog and offer custom-branded games for advertisers and sponsors, providing a new, measurable way to engage with audiences. With branded game integrations, companies can align their marketing campaigns or entertainment IP with playable content, reaching viewers through immersive interaction.
Zone·ify's free games are available now on these devices with more planned to launch in the coming months:
Pay TV Operators: Comcast Xfinity, Cox Contour, Buckeye Cable, DIRECTV U-verse (U.S.), Rogers Xfinity, and Videotron Helix (Canada)
CTV & Smart TVs: Amazon Fire TV, Android TV, Google TV (including Sony, TCL, Hisense),
Coming soon: Roku, Apple TV, Samsung, LG, and Vizio
Zone·ify's first-ever exclusive live sports event, The Border Brawl, held in Niagara Falls, Canada, shattered the platform's all-time streaming record with a 13X surge in live watch time. Fueled by national pride, reality TV stars, and wrestling legends like "The Mountie" Jacques Rougeau, Barbie Blank, Brutus "The Barber" Beefcake, Matt Hardy, Nic Nemeth, Tommy Dreamer, and many others, the event delivered an outrageous showdown between Team USA and Team Canada. Streaming free on Zone·ify, the spectacle became the most-watched title in company history and is now available on demand across Roku, Fire TV, Android TV, Comcast, Cox, and more.
Zone·ify, available on over 422 million devices and in 16 million Pay TV households, delivers thousands of movies, TV shows, curated short-form content, FAST channels, games, and events like nothing else on the digital landscape.
ABOUT ZONE·IFY
Zone·ify is a free, ad-supported streaming entertainment platform delivering live events, FAST channels, movies, short-form content, games, and exclusive programming to audiences across the U.S. and Canada. Available on Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, Comcast, DIRECTV, Cox, Rogers, Bell, mobile devices, and the web, Zone·ify reaches over 422 million consumer devices and 16 million Pay TV households. With 75+ curated channels, a growing slate of live ring sports, and bold original content, Zone·ify is where niche meets mainstream — all in one place, always free. Learn more at www.zoneify.tv.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250610209011/en/
Contacts
Peter BinazeskiZone·ifypbinazeski@zone.tv mediarelations@zone.tv
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Yahoo
Sex, lies and small-town scandal. No wonder ‘The Hunting Wives' is a Netflix hit.
It's part soapy drama, part erotic thriller and a whole lot of fun. Don't take it too seriously. When The Hunting Wives star Jaime Ray Newman was on a small ferry outside of Vancouver Island last week, she learned firsthand just how much buzz the sexy drama has created. Newman, who plays fiery, red-haired Texan Callie, overheard a group of friends debating what to binge-watch next. When one of them mentioned The Hunting Wives, two women on the boat who weren't part of the group interjected: "Oh my God, we just finished that. Have you seen it yet?" "All of a sudden, the whole boat started talking about the damn Hunting Wives," Newman tells Yahoo. She had changed her hair since the show came out, so she wasn't immediately recognizable. But when a producer she was with pointed her out to the group, they started to freak out. "All of a sudden, I was Julia Roberts on the boat. Everyone wanted selfies." It's a clear sign of how The Hunting Wives is the show of the moment. Last week, it pulled in over 2 billion minutes viewed on Netflix, according to data analytics platform Luminate. That was more than double its debut week numbers, an impressive accomplishment for a show licensed for only U.S. streaming. It remains in Netflix's Top 10. Based on May Cobb's bestselling novel, the series follows Sophie (Brittany Snow), who moves with her family from Boston to Texas. As she settles into the small town, Sophie becomes dangerously entangled with a socialite named Margo (Malin Akerman), spiraling into obsession, seduction and murder. Politics, guns and a touch of campy dialogue are thrown in too. Beyond the premise, what's so resonant about this raunchy series? The shock factor From steamy scenes to unexpected plot twists, The Hunting Wives pushes the envelope. That's especially true with how the series explores sex. There's the unconventional marital arrangement between Margo and her husband, Jed Banks — a debauched oil tycoon played by Dermot Mulroney — which allows them both to sleep with other women. And they both do … a lot. Akerman's character ultimately shares intimate moments with both Snow's and Newman's. There's also a storyline of her sleeping with the son of her best friend, a barely legal teen. Aside from 2021's Sex/Life, this might be the most risqué original series Netflix has ever released. Up until just two months ago, The Hunting Wives was actually slated to premiere on Starz. As Snow told Glamour, the cast filmed the series believing it would land with a smaller audience and potentially become a 'cult classic.' But Netflix changed the equation — and with a much bigger streaming audience comes a lot more opinions. As for the nudity, yes, it's meant to be provocative. 'Nobody who puts this many naked people on TV does it entirely for educational or creative purposes,' Linda Holmes wrote for NPR, while also pointing out how 'everybody seems to be having a transparently great time.' Snow told Glamour she didn't find that nude scenes were 'gratuitously done, where we're showing this shot of a woman's body for no reason.' 'It's all part of the story that needs to be told, specifically because of Margo's coercion and power and making these moves on Sophie, the sex scenes need to happen because Margo uses her sexuality and prowess to make sure that Sophie feels like she's finally being seen,' she said. This show isn't just buzzy because of the sex, although Episode 7's pegging scene might be the most jaw-dropping moment of them all. "Respectfully, the entire meat of the series is its indescribable, inescapable, horniness,' Rolling Stone says. There are plenty of wild antics that make The Hunting Wives an unhinged binge. In one episode, the hunting wives load up for a boar hunt, and after Callie calmly finishes one off, the women celebrate with a boozy brunch of mimosas, gossip and a game of never-have-I-ever that ends with a manslaughter confession. That abruptly ends the party … until two characters embark on an alcohol-and-Xanax rager and invite younger men over for a game of spin the bottle. There's also enough political satire to ruffle both sides of the aisle. Akerman has said her character was inspired by Melania Trump, and an abortion storyline comes with a side of anti-abortion posturing. Critics have called it a 'bonkers, bisexual culture-war soap,' with each episode going further than expected. While all that chaos keeps the entertainment dialed all the way up, it's part of the show's charm. This isn't a prestige drama like Succession or The Crown — it's your new guilty pleasure, dripping in scandal and served with a cold glass of whiskey. Beneath the sex, power plays and whodunit murder mystery, The Hunting Wives knows exactly what it is: a glossy, high-octane escape that doesn't take itself too seriously. Escapism at its finest With its biting one-liners — "she's a coastal elite with a body count" or "open marriages are for liberals" — chaotic Southern style, The Hunting Wives is about having a good time. "There are serious things that we're dealing with, but we come off the [storylines] quickly. We want to entertain," Newman says, crediting showrunner Rebecca Cutter for this no-holds-barred approach. "Oftentimes shows pussyfoot a little bit. They're a little too scared to upset this group, a little scared to upset that demographic. So they end up just playing it so down the middle, and Rebecca has no fear," Newman continues. "She threads that very delicate needle. Every now and then, you get a writer who comes along who just speaks to everyone.' The Hunting Wives certainly speaks to a female audience. The show offers complex, unapologetic characters who break the mold, telling stories that entertain an often-overlooked demographic. Although Sex and the City paved the way in 1998, it's rare to find TV shows centered on female desire and ambition, especially when it comes to portraying women over the age of 40. SATC spin-off And Just Like That... was recently canceled after three seasons, highlighting the challenge of sustaining these narratives. The Hunting Wives rises to the occasion, offering a bold exploration of women navigating power, intimacy and self-discovery without hesitation. 'Why can't women talk about wanting to have sex and be pleased?" Newman asks. 'Most stories are centered around men's pleasure, but finally, we get to be the forefront of these stories. So I think it's about time." This perspective in storytelling is speaking to audiences, especially as women are increasingly demanding their voices and experiences be heard. "Thank God we have writers like Rebecca to clear the way for us. People are so interested,' Newman says. 'You can see that [portraying] women in their 40s garners huge audiences." Will there be a Season 2? There's no official word yet on whether Netflix plans to greenlight a second season, but if the show stays at the top of the charts and the tip of everyone's tongues, it's hard to imagine why the streaming giant wouldn't invest. Newman says the cast and crew all hope it happens. "I cannot express enough the bond that we all had on this set. There was not a bad apple among the bunch. It's very rare to experience that. We all came into the show very seasoned,' she says. 'That is also the benefit of casting women who've been around for a long time. We've all seen good behavior and bad behavior on set." Newman is happy to leave the bad behavior on your TV screens. If that offends you, too bad. "Listen, maybe there are a few people that this angers, but whatever," she says. "Find another show."
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Yahoo
Apple Wants To Expand Live Sports Offering With MLB Playoffs
As Apple continues to bolster its Apple TV+ offerings, the company has shown a steadily increasing interest in broadcasting live sporting events. The company's latest move might see it expand its Major League Baseball coverage to include Wild Card games during the MLB postseason. According to a report from The Athletic, Apple is making a push that would see it secure the rights to Sunday Night Baseball along with some MLB playoff games. Should Apple and MLB ultimately strike a deal, it would be a nice complement to the company's Friday Night Baseball programming. As with all streaming negotiations with major sports leagues, there is no shortage of competition. The report notes that MLB is also conducting negotiations with companies like ESPN, NBC, and Netflix. Of course, the scope of programming rights each company is aiming to secure varies wildly. Apple's specific approach, as one would expect, appears to be quite measured. All in all, it seems content to slowly but surely expand its live sports offerings without spending vast amounts of cash to secure more expansive streaming deals with the likes of the NFL or NBA. Read more: 6 TV Shows That Are So Good, I Wish I Could Wipe My Memory And Enjoy Them Again For The First Time Sports Is The New Streaming Battleground As the streaming wars intensify, live sports have proven to be a great way to provide unique content capable of instantly attracting a ton of viewers. Last year, for example, Netflix for the first time aired two NFL games on Christmas Day. Netflix shelled out a lot of money for the broadcast rights and the gamble paid off in a big way. According to reports, Netflix's foray into NFL streaming attracted 65 million US viewers. Amazon has also gotten involved with the NFL. In 2022, the company became the exclusive platform to watch Thursday Night Football. And Peacock, starting in 2023, began airing exclusive NFL playoff games. In short, as streamers look to solidify their subscriber base, securing rights to live sporting events has proven to be a smart strategy. To this point, you might recall a report from earlier this summer claiming that Apple is also interested in acquiring Formula 1 streaming rights for somewhere in the range of $120 million. It's certainly a chunk of change, but pales in comparison to the billions ESPN pays for NFL streaming rights and the $150 million Netflix paid the NFL for just two NFL games last year. Read the original article on BGR.
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Yahoo
What channel is the Reds game? Reds vs. Brewers isn't on regular TV on Aug. 15
The Cincinnati Reds return to action at Great American Ball Park on Friday as they take on the Milwaukee Brewers, but some fans may have trouble finding the game. Ahead of the 2025 season, the Reds announced their games would air on FanDuel Sports Network Ohio, but since their matchup against the Brewers is slated for "Friday Night Baseball," the game will broadcast exclusively on Apple TV+. Whether you have an Apple TV+ subscription or not, here's how fans can watch the Reds vs. Brewers live on Friday. How to watch the Cincinnati Reds vs. Milwaukee Brewers The Reds-Brewers game on Friday night airs exclusively on Apple TV+, meaning you'll need an Apple TV+ subscription to catch the game. First pitch is set for 6:40 p.m. ET. Apple TV+ subscribers can watch the Reds on "Friday Night Baseball" by following these steps: Open the Apple TV+ app or visit Go to "Search." Select "Apple TV+ Major League Baseball." Select a game. Select "Watch." What to do if you don't have Apple TV+ Although Apple's MLB games will be free from blackout restrictions, only fans with Apple TV+ subscriptions will be able to catch the games. Since Apple holds exclusive rights for select Friday night games, Cincinnatians won't be able to catch the game on their local network. Apple's streaming service costs $9.99 per month after a 7-day free trial. The game will also broadcast on the radio on 700 WLW. Will the Reds-Brewers series be on Apple TV+? Although the Brewers will be in town from Aug. 15-17, the Friday night matchup is the only game that will air on Apple TV+. The Reds' weekend games will air on FanDuel Sports Network Ohio, as usual. This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: What channel is the Reds game? Reds vs. Brewers isn't on regular TV
