• by Wayne Friedman , December 6, 2016

Pushing more marketing/promotion for its TV content, Netflix is offering its own kind of TV/video promo “previews.”

In a company blog, the subscription video-on-demand service said it is offering “video synopses” of story lines, characters, and program style for its TV content -- looking to make it easier for consumers to make a TV programming decision about whether to view.

“[Netflix’s] video previews aren’t teasers or traditional trailers,” write Stephen Garcia, director of product innovation for TV and Chris Jaffe, vp of product innovation of Netflix. “We know we have less than 90 seconds to capture someone’s attention and get them excited about a title -- that’s why we’re introducing video previews into the TV browsing experience.”

Netflix says these previews launch globally on Tuesday, becoming available on all eligible devices over the next few weeks. This includes many game consoles and Roku devices, and smart TVs.

Netflix has 30 original scripted TV shows on its service, and will double its overall programming output to total more than 1,000 programming hours. It also has plans for 20 unscripted shows.

Netflix plans to spend about $6 billion in 2017 on content --up from $5 billion in 2016.

For decades, traditional TV networks have used their own airwaves for on-air TV show promotion to drive much of their tune-in. Current TV ratings erosion has made this a tougher task.