Hello everyone,
It’s been a busy few weeks with prep for Future of TV Advertising Australia, MIPTV and two Variety Intelligence Platform reports but here we are with a quick overview of U.S. FAST for March. I was hoping to have more time to go into some of the things I’ve picked up on international FAST, but there’s always next time (or perhaps one of the long flights facing me).
So, all that aside, what has gone on this month? I have learned lots about FAST markets in Australia (a good thing considering my keynote on Tuesday in Sydney), Canada, the U.K. and a bit on Germany. And I discovered Disney’s secret FAST channels!
Don’t let the cat out of the bag too much about this, I might end up doing a piece about it in a few weeks but it’s too astonishing to not share. The ABC app has secret FAST channels on them. I say secret because I don’t think anyone knows about them at all, but they are as follows (secret ones in bold):
ABC News Live
Extreme Makeover: Home Edition
Dharma & Greg
National Geographic: To Catch A Smuggler
Fun & Games
Super Nanny
National Geographic: Life Below Zero
National Geographic: Brain Games
National Geographic: Lost Treasures
National Geographic: America's National Parks
National Geographic: Pets & Vets
ABC 7 New York
ABC 7 Los Angeles
ABC 7 Chicago
ABC 6 Philadelphia
ABC 7 Bay Area
ABC 13 Houston
ABC 11 North Carolina
ABC 30 Fresno
If you knew about these, you must come clean.
Other things to note before getting into the heart of the data we all love:
Vizio dropped the “Vizio” branding on most of their O&Os.
A&E continued to add their TV network brands to their previously unbranded channels, an about-turn from the previous strategy but one that sees most now “Presented by A&E/History/Lifetime”. But where’s a Bio or FYI channel?
Roku added their WB TV channels, and unlike Tubi, opted to place them by theme rather than all in one big lump.
Tubi put out a report, and aside from citing my data incorrectly (how does this happen so consistently!?), made me happy by being the latest company to distinguish between AVOD and FAST content, rather than calling themselves “one of the FASTs”.
I looked into FASTVOD on Roku Channel and (sorry Tejas) noted that FilmRise has really leant into this offering. As have some channels with genres like True Crime or Food. 27 out of 380 channels on Roku currently offer this.
PS Pluto not forgetting you here. Pluto channels offer VOD capability too, but they kick you to the AVOD side, unlike say how Peacock does it which is to keep you in the channels interface. Mind you, Roku and Pluto give you the option to watch on VOD, whereas Peacock’s FASTVOD channels are scheduled linearly but only allow for VOD viewing.
I did an interview with Vevo on international distribution: https://live.streamingff.com/replay/international-fast-distribution-with-vevo/
Also one with my good friend Chantel on diversity in entertainment: https://live.streamingff.com/replay/different-lenses-on-diversity-in-entertainment/
Now for the data dump. I tried out a new data service this month, let me know what you think of the below. Also, I stopped measuring Cineverse. Haven’t had the time to do the full analysis and dedupe to get the total number of channels, that will have to happen sometime after MIPTV (oh the things I could do if I were able to focus on this). I do suspect that channel counts increased again though. The below is in gallery view, if you need to see it on an individual level, let me know and I’ll see what I can do.
Illy, as they used to say.
If you’re going to be at MIPTV come by for the FAST Summit, Marion Ranchet and me have a kick-ass presentation planned and you’ll want to see it. Plus, my good friend Valerio is speaking later that morning too.