• by Wayne Friedman , November 10, 2022

Smart TV platform revenue at Vizio Holding Co. grew 49% to $128 million in the third quarter of this year.

A big part of Vizio's platform revenue is advertising revenue, which grew 47% versus the previous quarter to $97 million.

Non-advertising revenue was 55% higher to $31 million.

The company says its “direct advertising client” business grew 65%, adding 158 net new advertisers.

Vizio says it has received $200 million in upfront commitments -- twice the level of a year ago.

Michael Morris, media analyst of Guggenheim Securities, says this is good news coming in the midst of a “challenging environment” for TV/CTV ad sellers. Vizio's results beat its estimates, and Morris maintains Vizio's rating as a “buy.”

Smart TV active accounts grew 15% to 16.6 million, with the average revenue per user per month growing 39% to $27.69.

At the same time, Vizio device revenues -- including smart TV sets -- were down 39% in the period to $307 million due to a 15% decline in TV set shipments -- at 1.2 million for the period versus 1.4 million in the third quarter of 2021.

Overall company-wide revenues were up 26% to $435 million along with a small net income, $2.0 million, versus an $18.6 million net loss in the year-ago period.