• by Alex Weprin , October 9, 2018

NBCUniversal has officially launched its free streaming video app, WatchBack. 

Unlike other free streaming video services, WatchBack is not meant to be a TV replacement. It is designed to offer consumers some free content, as well as entries into sweepstakes, in exchange for sampling NBCUniversal programming and sharing some viewing data with the company. 

The apparent goal of WatchBack is to be promotional and serve as a source of research datapoints. The service was first reported to be in the works in August, though at the time the scope of the project was not clear.

WatchBack launched on iOS over the weekend and will debut on Android in the coming weeks.

After signing up, users are asked to select genres of programming they like, as well as some programmers, from NBCUniversal brands like Bravo and E! to other digital brands, such as BuzzFeed’s Tasty and WatchMojo.

WatchBack is ad-supported, though it was not immediately clear whether the ads were programmatically bought or part of larger packages from NBCU.

After users select their genre and channel preferences, a home feed auto populates with relevant clips and episodes. Users can also search for episodes or clips by channel.

Users of the app can watch specific episodes or clips to be entered into sweepstakes. If users win a sweepstakes, they can choose to keep their winnings or donate them to charity.