NBCUniversal is readying the launch a over-the-top service that will incentivize viewers to watch shows with redeemable points and gift certificates.

NBCU doesn’t have a launch date for the platform, which will offer single episodes of its broadcast and cable shows, enticing viewers to sample them and potentially get hooked. The platform would also reportedly offer non-exclusive content from YouTube stars and other internet video creators.

NBCU has registered the domain WatchBack.com, which is currently only populated with the text message, “coming soon.”

Related: Comcast Sees New Path Ahead for ‘Watchable’

News of WatchBack was originally reported by The Information, although NBCU has since confirmed the story.

NBCU, of course, has had a spotty track record in regard to launching streaming services. The conglomerate invested $75 million in niche comedy SVOD site Seeso, only to scuttle the offering after 18 months.

Meanwhile, short-form video platform Watchable, launched in 2015 by NBCU parent Comcast, has never found traction, either.

NBCU does, however, have a 30% stake in SVOD giant Hulu. 

New York – Short-form video clips can still drive viewership on OTT platforms, according to a panel session Wednesday (Oct. 18) at the Multichannel News/B&C NextTV Summit. part of NYC Television Week. And though there is no magic number as to how long an audience will pay attention to the videos, 15 minutes seems to be the limit.

Read More: Complete Coverage of #NYCTVWK

Comcast Watchable VP of programming Craig Parks said that while he has always chafed at the term – "short-form" implies “less than” to him – he added that it is increasingly valuable. But the length of the clips, he said, depends on what the content is being used for.

“If you’re cooking a pizza, it doesn’t need to be any longer than it is,” Parks said at the panel session entitled “The Transformation of Storytelling in the OTT/ On-Demand Era. “There is no magic number, no magic length.”

But he said that after producing 18 short-form series, he believes anything past 15 minutes might be pushing the envelope.

Read More: Complete Coverage of the Next TV Summit

While short-form shows may get short shrift compared with traditional 30-minute and 60-mnute series, panel members said the two can work together. At A+E Networks, Paul Cabana, executive vice president and head of History & Biography digital, said the network is bringing back the Biography channel brand, but only through one-to-two minute clips. At that length, he said, they can relaunch the Biography brand on any one of A+E Networks’s channels.

Gunpowder and Sky founder and CEO Van Toffler, a veteran of linear TV (he spent more than a generation at Viacom) said short-form video can lead to longer form projects, but that is a rarity. Short-form also has value in determining if a longer form show will resonate with the audience.

Toffler said his company is currently shooting a 7-minute pilot for a proposed 30-minute show. Once that pilot is finished, Gunpowder and Sky can put it online to determine how a young audience will react to it.

“I love the idea of down and dirty, fast and cheap pilots you put up on your own sites and learn from your experiments,” Toffler said.

The panelists saw mobile video as being the biggest disruptor to their businesses, but that too can be a perfect vehicle for short-form content.

“Let’s do more for mobile," said Revry CEO and co-founder Damian Pelliccione. “I don’t have any competitors in this space because we get to set the bar.”

Comcast’s decision to focus on exclusive series for Watchable, its ad-based, short-form OTT video offering, is producing some early results.

Since launching its initial slate of exclusive fare for Watchable in August, 37% of all new viewers to the platform have come into sample those exclusive titles. Engagement with Watchable’s full complement of content has also risen 26% since exclusives were introduced, Comcast said.

RELATED: Comcast Adds Exclusives to ‘Watchable’ OTT Mix

Watchable premiered two exclusives this week – Am I Doing This Right? with Kelsey Darragh from Buzzfeed, and Knock Knockfrom PopSugar. With those factored in, Watchable has launched nine exclusive short-form series this year.

Comcast debuted Watchable in beta form last fall, offering it via an app for smartphones and tablets, web browsers, and over-the-top to its IP-capable X1 set-top boxes.  Of those platforms, Watchable’s web site is seeing the most traffic. Awesome Pet Thoughts  is the most-viewed series for Watchable on X1, as it’s been programmed to appear along more traditional TV content in the service’s lifestyle section.  

Watchable, the free, ad-based OTT service from Comcast introduced in beta form last fall, has launched two exclusive Web series – Awesome Pet Thoughts from Jukin Media, and 100 Years of Beauty-How To from Cut.com.

Watchable has ordered 20 episodes of Awesome Pet Thoughts, a short-form comedy offering that takes viewers through a narrative story arc using user-generated video of pets and animals from the Jukin library. The first five episodes debuted on Watchable today, with the other 15 to be released in the coming weeks.

The 100 Years of Beauty: How-To series, meanwhile, is an exclusive spin off of the YouTube series that provides step-by-step hair and makeup instructions for “modern interpretations” of historical figures and icons such as Frida Kahlo, Billie Holiday, Marilyn Monroe, and Imelda Marcos.

Comcast kicked off its Watchable exclusives initiative in August, announcing content deals with Refinery29, mitú, Cut.com, CollegeHumor, PopSugar, Studio71 and BuzzFeed Motion Pictures.

At the time, Craig Parks, VP of programming for Watchable, said Comcast was pitched on more than 400 concepts and ideas for its new exclusives initiative.

Other exclusive Watchable series already on offer or in the works include Ballin’ on a Budget(Refinery29); Cholos Try (mitú),  How to Human (Cut.com), Knock Knock (PopSugar), I Want My Phone Back (CollegeHumor), Logan Paul VS (Studio71), Would You Rather (Cut.com), and Am I Doing This Right? (BuzzFeed).

Watchable is currently available to all via mobile apps for iOS and Android smartphones and tablets, Web browsers, as well as via X1 set-tops.

Looking to differentiate while broadening its relationship with content partners, Comcast has teed up its first slate of exclusive original content for “Watchable,” the free, ad-based OTT service introduced last fall.

Watchable’s new focus on exclusives is kicking off with three short-form, original series  from Refinery29, mitú and Cut.com. Another batch of six originals series from Cut.com, CollegeHumor, PopSugar, Studio71 and BuzzFeed Motion Pictures will be launched in the coming months (see list below for more details).

Adding exclusive content to the mix was a “natural” step for Watchable as it looked to differentiate while also deepening its relationship with content partners, Jamie Gillingham, vice president of strategic development at Comcast.  

Comcast isn’t disclosing the financial terms of its exclusive content arrangements for Watchable.

“The way we’ve been approaching it is that it’s about the idea first,” Craig Parks, VP of programming for Watchable, said, noting that Comcast was pitched on more than 400 concepts and ideas for its new exclusives initiative.

Watchable is currently available to all via mobile apps for iOS and Android smartphones and tablets, Web browsers, as well as on the set-top for Comcast pay TV subs who are on the MSO's X1 platform.

Comcast also has not revealed a lot of user data for Watchable, but Gillingham noted that the average session time for Watchable on X1 is more than 30 minutes. Watchable’s traffic on mobile platforms have been growing at a rate of 40% per month thanks in part to Comcast-led promotions and those delivered through content partners.

Watchable currently offers about 350 shows and has roughly 60,000 videos under management, with most episodes in the four-to-nine minute range.

More about Watchable’s strategy around exclusive content will be featured in the Next TV section of the August 29 issue of Multichannel News.

The video below offers a snippet of three original series from Watchable that debut today: Ballin’ on a Budget; Cholos Try; and How to Human.

Watchable’s Exclusive Slate

Watchable is introducing three exclusive series today:

-Ballin’ on a Budget(Refinery29): Series features comedienne and rapper Awkwafina, who takes to the streets of New York to show viewers how to live the high life on a low budget.

-Cholos Try (mitú): This series from the digital-first media focused on young Latinos is a new, longer-form of the popular online series that follows four “Cholos” from East L.A “who go out of their comfort zone and immerse themselves in cultures and lifestyles across America.”

-How to Human (Cut.com): This part how-to/scripted comedy series takes irreverent look into the many ways people can improve our lives, with a focus on a young woman who is “learning the true meaning of ‘ failing forward.’”

Watchable will also premiere a handful of additional exclusives in the coming months:

-Knock Knock (PopSugar):  Series features fashion designer Rachel Antonoff taking the audience inside the homes, offices, dressing rooms, and other intimate spaces of people such as Saturday Night Live star Aidy Bryant, veterinarian Dr. Jan Pol, and designer Lisa Frank.

-I Want My Phone Back (CollegeHumor): An on-the-street game show series with host Alana Johnston and a cast of improvisers take to the streets of Los Angeles to see if contestants will put

their mobile devices in the hands of total strangers, for up to $1,000.

-100 Years of Beauty (Cut.com): Based off the YouTube series, Cut.com will present a new how-to makeup and hairstyling series that teaches viewers how to create contemporary looks inspired by celebrated historical figures such as Frida Kahlo, Billie Holiday, and Imelda Marcos.

-Logan Paul VS (Studio71): Features social media star Logan Paul as he takes on “potential life-threatening challenges,” including wrestling a bear, Navy Seal training, bull riding, and wilderness survival.

-Would You Rather (Cut.com): Series explores how one might pick between two difficult choices such as dealing with narcolepsy or insomnia, or having to survive an AI uprising or a Zombie Apocalypse.

-Am I Doing This Right? (BuzzFeed Motion Pictures): BuzzFeed star and comedienne Kelsey Darragh takes on the art of “adulting,” otherwise known as “growing up.” 

In a study that should provide comfort to Comcast and Verizon as they try to draw eyeballs to their new Watchable (pictured) and go90 over-the-top services, Adobe found that 92% of millennials in the U.S. consider the smartphone to be their primary device for watching TV when on the go. 

That compares to 84% among GenX'ers, 69% of baby boomers, and 67% of the 70-and-older crowd, per Adobe’s survey of cross-section of 4,000 consumers in the U.S., the U.K., Germany and France (the stats cited here are Adobe’s for the U.S.).

Additionally, 38% of those surveyed said they are using mobile devices to watch live sports, well above 9% from  Adobe’s study from last year.

And most consumers aren’t shy about registering personal info in order to gain access to ad-supported content. About 63% of U.S. mobile users told Adobe that they provide their email address in exchange for receiving premium content with advertising.

Among other findings, Adobe said 67% of U.S. respondents favored apps for streaming TV shows and full-length movies. But just 31% of millennials said they were extremely satisfied with that mobile experience, versus 20% of the GenX group, 13% of Baby Boomers, and 9% of consumers 70 years and older.

Adobe also found that millennials and GenX respondents perceive personalized experiences to be just as important as “simplification,” a category that includes elements such as recommendations based on viewing history.

Looking to connect with millennials and other younger audience sets, Comcast on Tuesday launched a beta version of Watchable, the MSO’s anticipated online, cross-platform video service that offers a curated selection of shows and content from about 30 partners, including Buzzfeed, GoPro, AwesomenessTV, Maker Studios, Refinery29, Vice and Vox Media, among others.

Comcast’s said the beta version of the ad-supported Watchable service is initially available on iOS smartphones and tablets, at Watchable.com and via the MSO’s X1 platform for set-tops and mobile devices (a Watchable app for Android is "coming soon," an official said). While only Comcast subscribers can access Watchable on X1, non-subs can stream Watchable content via the Web site and the Wathcable iOS app. All content for Watchable, including what's delivered to X1 boxes, will be streamed over-the-top. The beta debut comes about a month after a Web-based demo of Watchable appeared online temporarily. The beta debut of Watchable also comes just weeks after Verizon launched a private, invitation-only trial for go90, its “mobile-first,” ad-driven service that’s also targeted primarily to millennials.

The video below shows Watchable running on  Comcast's X1 interface for set-tops:

“The web has changed the way we all think about video,” Sam Schwartz, Comcast Cable’s chief business development officer, noted in this blog post. “A new class of online creators and producers is developing innovative content that is attracting big audience.  We want to continue to connect creators of compelling content with viewers who want to be entertained, and have been experimenting with new partnerships to deliver more high-quality videos from the web, especially to the television.”

Other content partners on board early on include Comcast corporate cousin NBCU, as well as CelebTV, Collective Digital Studio, Defy Media, Discovery Digital Networks, Fast Company, Flama, Future Today, GarageMonkey, Jukin Media, Machinima, Mashable, Mic Media,  Network A, Newsy, The Onion, POPSUGAR, Red Bull, Scripps Networks Interactive, Tastemade, TEN, TYT Network, and Video Detective.

All Watchable content is ad-supported, and is tied to an interface that lists content by categories spanning Auto, Entertainment, Fashion & Style, Food & Travel, Funny, Gaming, Music, News, Science & Technology and Sports.

“Over time, we’ll add additional network partners, make the experience more personalized, and include new options to share content with friends,” Schwartz added, noting that many of Comcast’s Watchable partners “have not traditionally had distribution on the TV and we can give them a path to reach new audiences and further monetize their content on the biggest screen in the home.” 

Comcast has been building out its advanced advertising capabilities through recent acquisitions of This Technology, Visible World and FreeWheel.

NFL games and live concerts will be among the video fare offered by Go90, a free, “mobile-first” over-the-top offering from Verizon Communications targeted to millennials that will debut this week, according toThe New York Times.

Go90 is expected to be a free, ad-supported service that offers a blend of live and on-demand content. Though initially developed for mobile devices (the name of the service is about rotating a smartphone 90 degrees to view video in landscape mode), Verizon’s also noodling TV-based streaming strategies, the paper said.

Announced partners for Verizon’s new service include Discovery Communications, Vice Media, Scripps Networks Interactive, ACC Digital Network, Campus Insiders, CBS Sports, ESPN, 120 Sports,  Awesomeness TV, and AOL, which Verizon acquired in June. The New York Times noted that the offering will also feature shows from Comedy Central, NFL Network, Tastemade and Machinima.

Brian Angiolet, Verizon’s senior vice president for consumer products, told the  Times that Verizon struck mobile rights for specific shows rather than crafting deals that provide access to entire networks. Expanding on its NFL mobile exclusive, Verizon Wireless announced last week that all current and legacy price plans will include live streaming of Sunday local NFL games as well as Thursday Night Football, Sunday Night Football and Monday Night Football matchups, plus mobile streaming access to NFL Network.

Verizon’s new mobile video offering will be network-agnostic, but will “work best” on Verizon networks, Marni Walden, EVP and president of product innovation and new business at Verizon, said on a conference call in June. She also confirmed that “ad-sponsored data” will be part of the offering.

Variety reported that the launch of Go90 could happen as soon as Tuesday (September 8), noting that a splash page for the service showed a customer agreement that temporarily read: “Effective date: September 8, 2015.”

Verizon has been asked for further comment about the apparent imminent launch of the Go90 service.

Comcast, meanwhile, appears to be nearing the debut of Watchable, an ad-supported OTT service tailored for younger audiences, but has not announced a launch date for the service, nor confirmed that Watchable will be the name of the service when it does go live.

Indicating that the launch of Comcast’s new online video offering, dubbed Watchable, is drawing closer, Varietylocated a Web-based demo of the service and uncovered some additional details on what’s to come.

Comcast isn’t commenting on the apparent sneak preview, which looks to have been a beta demo that was left out in the open temporarily. The operator also has not announced a launch date nor confirmed that Watchable will indeed be the name of the service when it goes live.

But a person familiar with the plan said earlier that Watchable is being developed as a curated, ad-supported OTT video service that will be offered on Comcast’s IP-capable X1 platform, which is delivered on set-tops as well as browsers and mobile apps, and will also become available to non-Comcast customers. It’s expected to offer a variety of professional and semi-professional content from several sources, including Maker Studios, GoPro, Fullscreen, Vox Media (now backed by Comcast’s NBCU), AwesomenessTV, The Onion and Vice Media, and NBCU.

From that standpoint, it appears that Watchable will share similarities to go90, Verizon’s coming mobile-first, ad-supported OTT offering.

According to Variety’s spin with Watchable, the service emphasizes “editor-driven curation,” and featured playlists with labels such as “Obama Nation,” “Epic Fails” and “Foodie Delight,” but the demo version (a snap of the home page, posted by Variety, is shown above), did not include a section for user comments.

The report noted that the service initially for the U.S. audiences, though the help section indicates that Comcast is “working to bring Watchable to additional countries.”  Other content providers featured on the demo site included the Verge, Popsugar, iFood.tv, Machinima, Smosh, Jukin Media, Discovery Digital and Fox Sports Digital, Variety said. 

Comcast is nearing the launch of a curated, ad-supported streaming service that can be tied into its X1 platform, and it will look get a leg up by offering content partners more attractive ad-splits than what they’re getting from Google/YouTube and Facebook, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Per the pub, those creators for Comcast’s coming “Watchable” service will get to keep 70% of the ad revenue, versus the 45% cut offered by YouTube and Facebook.  Another one to think about is Vessel, the startup headed by Jason Kilar that is not only flush with startup cash but also looking to attract top OTT talent through an early access program that gives the service temporary exclusivity on some content.

As a reminder, Watchable is the name (for now) of a curated OTT video service from Comcast that, sources confirm, will feature content from sources such as Maker Studios, GoPro, Fullscreen, Vox Media, AwesomenessTV, Refinery29, The Onion, Vice Media, as well as from corporate cousin NBCU. It’s expected to launch this fall on the X1 platform, and will also be made to run on mobile devices and reach consumers that are inside and outside of the MSO’s cable footprint. It’ll likely come on the heels of Go90, the ad-based “mobile-first” OTT service Verizon is about to launch.

Comcast hasn’t launched the service, but naysayers are already starting to weigh in and wonder if the service will connect with younger audiences.  

For example, nScreenMedia’s Colin Dixon presented “Four reasons why Comcast ‘Watchable’ will go unwatched.’ Chief among them is the curated model, as Dixon argues that the “young audience that will be attracted to the videos available through Watchable likely doesn’t need or want a company like Comcast curating content for them.”

He’s also not keen on Comcast’s apparent,  initial TV-focused approach, and that Comcast will have a hard time making much headway without exclusive access to content. While I'd totally agree that it would be short-sighted for Comcast to focus Watchable on X1 and the TV, it's pretty clear that Comcast is also thinking about mobile delivery here.