SME#20: The FAST Broadcaster Landscape
Streaming Made Easy #20
Welcome back to Streaming Made Easy. This week, we take a look at the FAST initiatives led by European Broadcasters.
This edition is a bit of a teaser to MIP TV.
If you are going to Cannes, come see Gavin Bridge and I deliver a 20’ keynote on “Global FAST Trends” (it’s at 9am CET during the International FAST Summit). We will both bring the fruit of our research work and passion for FAST.
Today at a glance:
Analysis: The FAST Broadcaster Landscape
Streamer snapshot: Spanish-speaking streamer, ViX
Content recommendation: Daisy Jones and the Six
💡 Analysis:
FAST used to be the land of library content stitched together. Channels had no brand notoriety or very little.
As the space grows up, we see Tier 1 brands investing in FAST channels, may that be sports organizations (DAZN, NHL), news outlets (ABC News, Bloomberg, Euronews), format champions (Banijay, Fremantle) or big media groups (Warner Bros Discovery, A&E).
In Europe, we have new kids on the block: TV Broadcasters.
The entry in FAST signals that it’s no longer Broadcast TV vs FAST. The lines are blurring and it’s a good thing. As an industry, we have a duty to innovate in how we reach audiences especially when audiences’ behaviors shift so dramatically.
Daily time spent watching TV worldwide from 2011 to 2021 (in minutes) - Statista
Within 18 months, we have seen 3 trends emerging in the FAST Broadcaster Landscape:
FAST Channel Launches
The commercial arms of BBC (BBC Studios), ITV (ITV Studios) and ZDF (ZDF Studios) have launched FAST channels across Europe.
BBC Studios has 5 channels: BBC Drama, BBC Travel, BBC Food, BBC History, Doctor Who.
ZDF launched TerraX with Samsung TV Plus Germany.
ITV Studios launched Hell’s Kitchen, Storylands, Secret Dealers, Sherlock.
Graham Haigh, EVP of Global Business Development and Digital Distribution, announced plans to launch a single drama-focused FAST channel to exploit its content in European markets as part of a range of “four to six” non IP-specific FAST channels. “Come dine with me” and “Love Island” are additional channel concepts ITV Studios is working on.
Here it’s a great way for broadcasters to become European players outside of their home market. The brand is front and center unlike before when their presence was IP-led only (through their licensing deals to local and regional players).
The channels are distributed through FAST platforms like Freevee, Pluto TV, Samsung TV Plus or Rakuten TV.
FAST Channel Hubs
In their home markets, it’s a different story. I don’t expect them to lean into 3rd-party platforms. Their FAST channels are a treasure they should make available on their own and operated services.
French Commercial Broadcasters, TF1 & M6, understood that early on and launched their respective hubs.
TF1 has over 50 FAST channels. M6 started 2 channels recently (with Vice and Konbini).
Another example of Broadcasters leaning more towards streaming, ITV recently announced that they will shutdown their kids channel (CITV) and start a streaming-only kids hub this summer. I’m sure they will launch kids FAST channels for such hub.
Within ITVX, you already have 22 FAST channels. Their FAST channels are event-based (Christmas, World Cup), IP-led (Vera, Real Housewives) or theme-based (Classic Movies, Crime Drama).
I also spoke in a previous post about ITV Signed, the world-first BSL channel. It's the British Sign Language FAST Channel, hours of signed content from ITV's library.
I really love seeing this type of initiative come out of the FAST ecosystem. It signals a massive opportunity for FAST to differentiate itself by being a hub for more diversity and inclusion on TV.
The beauty of FAST is that you can create a channel fairly quickly. You can test and learn to see what meets its audience. If not, you move on. This level of flexibility means there's no more excuse for companies not to innovate and make themselves more accessible, diverse and inclusive. ITV just did that, let’s see who’s next.
Broadcast TV Channel syndication
The last trend we saw is the syndication of Broadcast TV Channels to FAST Platforms.
RTVE (Spanish Public Broadcaster) brought its suite of channels to Samsung TV Plus Spain just in time for the World Cup.
RTVE doesn't program FAST channels, it gives its feeds (understand linear feeds) to Samsung. No need for an antenna anymore to get Free TV.
Expect to see more deals like that because who does great TV?
Broadcasters do and FAST is a great way for them to expand their reach and potentially attract younger audiences.
📺 Streamer snapshot:
With 54,2M Spanish speakers, the US had to cater to this customer segment.
ViX (formerly known as PrendeTV) is an OTT streaming service owned and operated by TelevisaUnivision. It is live in the US as well as in 17 LATAM markets. The service is available in Spanish and Portuguese.
They have two tiers:
free with ads
premium tier with no ads
The service primarily shows content from TelevisaUnivision and other third-party content providers across all major genres: movies, TV series, novels, sports, news, kids.
It’s another perfect example of an hybrid service with AVOD, SVOD and FAST perfectly mixed.
Their FAST channel line up is made of 10 different genres and has 108 channels.
I’d love to have the French equivalent of ViX in the Netherlands.
🎬 Content recommendation:
You may not know this but I started my career at a record label and later on at a music tech start up. Music is my other passion after Movies & TV Series.
So if you put the two together, I’m excited but I’ll be demanding.
I’ve just finished watching “Daisy Jones & the Six” on Prime Video and I must say: it’s amazing. I don’t think I’ve ever watched such a great show on music.
The Pitch: The rise of fictional rock band “Daisy Jones and The Six” through the 1970s Los Angeles music scene on their quest for worldwide icon status.
The Origin: It’s based on a NY Times best-selling book by Taylor Jenkins Reid and it’s produced by Reese Witherspoon’s company, Hello Sunshine.
The Producer: Reese Witherspoon reads hundreds of books a year so we can expect more great adaptations like this one.
The Cast: I knew none of them except Timothy Olyphant. I love shows with unknown actors. I feel they work more collectively for some reason and boy did they work. They practiced for eight months to rehearse, learn the instruments and try to play in sync. Kim Gordon, from Sonic Youth, supported them to ensure they were believable as professional musicians.
The Music: The inspiration for the band is Fleetwood Mac. All the songs were written by Blake Mills (a producer working with folks like Fiona apple, Laura Marlin) and the album is now playing non stop on my Spotify.
I just can’t get over it. This show has a long-lasting effect on me somehow.
Hope you will love it too.
That’s it folks. Enjoy your weekend and see you next Friday for another edition of Streaming Made Easy!
By night, I write Streaming Made Easy and post each working day on Linkedin.
By day, I run The Local Act, a streaming video consultancy.
Whenever you’re ready, there are 3 ways I can help you:
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