Black History Month on FAST Services

FAST has a record 67 channels touching on Black culture, but how are the platforms celebrating Black History Month?

February is Black History Month, and when it comes to FAST, this has traditionally been a time where some channels focusing on Black culture get pushed up to the top of the program guide at some FAST platforms and perhaps a pop-up channel or two launches.

Having conducted a thorough analysis of what’s available on key FAST platforms this month, FASTMaster can conclude that there are more overall channels focused on Black culture in the U.S. but also that not many platforms are putting a lot of attention on the cultural milestone of Black History Month. Some of the channels themselves are (such as Vevo, Revolt Mixtape, AspireTV Life, LOL! Network) and we’ll touch upon those in an additional analysis. If you operate Black culture channels and have special programming for Black History Month, please be in touch and I’ll update this list.

(There will be a separate analysis this month of just what is available within the lens of Black culture on FAST and the trends within that).

Freevee

Freevee has 20 channels that touch upon Black culture (+4 from Feb. 2023). When accessing Freevee via Prime Video on a smart TV, there is a new Black Voices genre section included in the guide, featuring the following channels:

• Black Movies +

• Black Love

• Black Star Network

• Reign by MANSA

• AspireTV Life

• Ebony TV by Lionsgate

• Shades of Black

• TheGrio

• Maverick Black Cinema

• FilmRise Black TV

• Fox Soul

• Demand Africa

• Revolt Mixtape

LG Channels

LG’s FAST service offers 12 Black culture FAST channels (+1 from last year) and added Maverick Black Cinema to their featured channels at the top of the EPG.

Local Now

Local Now offers 15 Black culture channels (20 last year) including the pop-up Local Now Black History Month channel. In the recommended channels at the top of the guide, they have added the HBCU Go channel.

Peacock

Peacock’s channel service is still free if you had a login prior to the wall going up, so it’s a FAST for me. They currently offer 4 channels focused on Black culture (no change from last year) with the three Peacock owned-and-operated channels boosted up the guide to numbers 13-15 (no such luck for LOL! Network). It’s a little disappointing that February 2021’s excellent pop-up channel SNL Vault Black Heritage has never returned especially considering Peacock has grown in users substantially since that point.

Plex

Plex offers more Black content 24 channels than anyone (6 more than last year) and has a Black Entertainment genre hub available for quick navigation all year.

Pluto TV

In total, Pluto offers 17 channels for Black culture, two more than last year. When I first visited Pluto on Feb. 4, it did not have a highlight part of the EPG for Black History Month. That changed some time between then and the 8th of February, as a hub entitled “The Black Collective” has been added near the top of the guide, with Pluto telling me that this will be a permanent VOD banner. Channels within The Black Collective hub:

• Black Cinema

• Black Throwbacks

• Black Classics

• BET Pluto TV

• BET Her

• Bounce XL

• AspireTV Life

• Love & Hip Hop

• Vevo R&B

• XITE Gospel

Roku Channel

Roku dropped their o&o Roku Channel The Block in December, but still offers the second-greatest number of Black-focused channels among FAST services with 23 (+1 year-over-year).

Samsung TV Plus

Samsung featured Ebony TV by Lionsgate at the top of the EPG and overall counts 13 Black entertainment channels, an increase of 4 from Feb. 2023’s 9.

Tubi

Tubi has no Black genre hub in its FAST EPG, which seems a little bit of a disconnect for a key audience cohort. No Black channels are in its recommended channels at the top of the EPG either, but counts 11 Black culture FAST channels available (8 last Feb.).

Vizio WatchFree+

Vizio added the Ebony TV by Lionsgate Black-focused FAST channel for Black History Month, as well as Stingray Soul Storm. In total it counts one of the greatest number of Black-focused FAST channels (21), including the o&o Black Brilliance (which now appears to be a pop-up). This is an increase on the 17 channels offered in Feb. 2023. Vizio also features a home page splash for Black History month, details for which can be seen here.

Xumo Play

Alongside Freevee and Pluto TV, Xumo Play is the only service to create a specialized hub for Black History Month with “Black Voices. Black Stories.” at the very top of the EPG and showcasing 16 channels, with the service totaling at 17 (+2 from last February).