Somebody Has to Decide What Goes First

The top of your home page is the most valuable space you own. Editor Picks is where you choose what fills it, whether that is a hand picked hero, a section filled automatically from your categories, or a mix of films, series, episodes and live channels.

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Somebody Has to Decide What Goes First

An Algorithm Cannot Tell You What You Are Proud Of

Recommendations are very good at working out what somebody is likely to finish and completely incapable of knowing what you spent a year acquiring. Those are different jobs. Further down a home page, letting behaviour decide the order is usually right, because a viewer knows their own taste better than you do. At the very top it is usually wrong, because the first thing anybody sees should be the thing you are actually trying to launch. Editor Picks exists for that. It is the part of the home page where a person makes the call, and it sits deliberately apart from the rows that arrange themselves, so that a premiere you have paid to promote is never buried under whatever happened to be popular on Tuesday.


Vodlix Editor's Pick
Ordered by hand

Drag rows into the order you want and the arrangement saves itself. No numbering scheme to maintain and no save button to forget, which is what makes people actually keep it current.

Vodlix Top 10 Content List
Or filled automatically

Populate a section from your own categories and tags instead of choosing every item. Useful for a section that should always reflect a genre rather than a decision somebody made once.

Vodlix Live TV
Films, series and live together

A section can carry videos, a whole TV show, individual episodes and a live channel side by side, because the thing you want to lead with this week is not always the same kind of thing.

hero-populate.png

Curated and Automatic Are Not Opposites

The choice is usually presented as picking everything by hand or handing the whole thing to a machine, and in practice you want both in different places. Populate fills a section from the categories and tags you already use, which means a section defined as your documentaries stays accurate as you add documentaries, without anybody revisiting it. That is the right answer for a section whose meaning is stable. A hero that leads with next Friday's premiere is the opposite case, and that one you choose. Because both live on the same screen, moving a section from one approach to the other is a decision rather than a rebuild. The rows further down the page are covered under content lists, and the categories that make automatic filling possible sit behind content search.


You Can See What Each Pick Costs a Viewer

Every item in a section shows how it is monetized, so a free title, a rental and something behind a subscription are distinguishable at a glance while you are arranging them. This matters more than it looks. A home page that leads with four titles a free viewer cannot watch is a home page that teaches people your service is not for them, and the only way to avoid building one by accident is to be able to see the mix while you work. The same view shows whether each item is actually published, which is how you avoid promoting something that is still a draft. How those models are configured is described under monetization models, and the plans behind them under subscriptions.


One Decision, Every Screen

What you arrange here is what people meet on the website, in the apps and on television, because all of them read the same sections rather than each having a home page somebody maintains separately. That is the difference between changing your front page and changing it three times and hoping they agree. It also means a promotion can go live everywhere at the same moment, which is what makes it worth coordinating with a campaign at all. The television layout is described under TV apps and the phone under mobile apps, and what any of it achieved is readable in reports and analytics.


Frequently Asked Questions

Have questions about taking advantage of this limited-time offer? Check out the FAQ for answers.

What is the difference between Editor Picks and content lists?
Editor Picks is the part of the home page you decide by hand, typically the hero and the sections at the very top. Content lists are the rows underneath. They work together, and keeping them separate is deliberate, because the item you want to lead with and the rows that arrange themselves are two different editorial jobs.
Can a section fill itself automatically?
Yes. Populate fills a section from your categories and tags, so a section that means one genre stays accurate as the catalogue grows. That is the right approach for anything whose meaning does not change, and the wrong one for a hero promoting a specific launch.
Can I mix films, series and live channels in one section?
You can. A section accepts videos, whole TV shows, individual episodes and live channels, which matters because the thing worth leading with in a given week is not always the same kind of content. A live event and a new film can sit beside each other.
How do I change the order things appear in?
Drag the rows. The order saves itself as you go, so there is no numbering to maintain and no save step to forget. That sounds trivial and is the single biggest reason home pages either stay current or quietly stop being touched.
Can I see whether a pick is free or paid while arranging it?
Yes. Each item shows its monetization model alongside its publish status, so you can see the mix as you build. It stops you leading with several titles a free viewer cannot open, which is an easy mistake to make and an expensive one.
Does the home page differ between web, mobile and TV?
The sections are the same because all three read the same arrangement, though each platform lays them out to suit its own screen and input. That means one decision rather than three, and a promotion appearing everywhere at once rather than drifting.
Can I stop something appearing without deleting it?
Items can be removed from a section without touching the title itself, individually or in bulk. The content stays in your catalogue and remains searchable, it simply stops being promoted, which is what you usually want when a campaign ends.
How many items should a hero section carry?
That is an editorial judgement rather than a technical limit, and the platform will hold as many as you add. Most services keep the top section short, because a hero that rotates through twenty titles is closer to a screensaver than a recommendation.