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Webinars

VIP+ Webinar: The Three Pillars of FAST

Variety Intelligence Platform has maintained its industry-standard coverage of the evolution of the FAST market and is proud to present our latest webinar on the topic. A complement to the third edition of the “Life in the FAST Lane” special report, “The Three Pillars of FAST” presented by Amagi, expands on a key component of that report. 

Much of the focus that’s paid to free ad-supported streaming TV centers around the distributing services—think Pluto TV, Freevee, Tubi, Roku Channel, Samsung TV Plus, Plex and the like. While these make up a crucial part of the FAST infrastructure, providing consumers with a way to watch FAST channels, distribution is but a third of a trio of what VIP+ has dubbed the three pillars. 

One of the other pillars is content. Little attention has been paid, at least in analysis outside of VIP+, on the role of content in FAST, and it is a main focus of our latest deep-dive report. Content is fueling the channel boom in FAST, and without it platforms would have nothing to air. This webinar focuses on the role content plays and what to expect in the future. 

The last core component of FAST is advertising. Being free to view, the FAST industry is reliant upon revenues from ads and has been seeing considerable growth as more viewers discover the format and watch longer. 

With that framework, VIP+ Senior Media Analyst Gavin Bridge moderated a panel of senior executives in the space: James Smith, EVP, Programmatic & Ad Sales, Amagi; Rob Christensen, SVP, Global Sales & Distribution, Vevo; Cameron Saless, Chief Business Officer, Trusted Media Brands; Tejas Shah, SVP, Commercial Strategy & Analytics, FilmRise; and Jeremy Strauss, Global Head of Business Development, Tastemade. 

One crucial point about the U.S. FAST market is that, whilst still innovating and seeing techniques such as AI content recommendations on the horizon, it is becoming increasingly more entrenched and thus more difficult for new companies to enter the space. Amagi’s Smith hit upon this theme when he said of having a channel or plans to launch a channel in the U.S., “If you’re not in the game, you’re late to the game.” (It’s a little different for international FAST, which is still in its infancy.) 

When discussing channel distribution and the need for consistent findings, Vevo’s Strauss noted that “within channels and distributors, [standardized data] is being viewed as a zero-sum game right now, [so] any change in the deal point by one side is looked at as a trade-off, and we need to get out of this mindset. We need to recognize that if we don’t solve some of these issues … then the HBO Max, Netflix and Disneys of the world are going to come in with great content and a massive amount of momentum and capture the majority of CTV advertising spend.” 

When speaking about the content opportunities that exist within FAST, Shah mentioned that FilmRise has been able to take shows that ended distribution on TV and reintroduce them to audiences on FAST and garner enough attention that they ultimately get picked back up by TV, with examples being “World’s Most Evil Killers,” “Unsolved Mysteries” and “Forensic Files.” He noted the fact that the low barriers to entry for FAST enable content creation, with FilmRise “providing opportunities for digital native creators to operate on FAST.” 

To hear this and a lot more, including what data metrics our panelists think are the most valuable for measuring FAST success, what 2023 will bring, whether original content can work in the format, how advertising on FAST differs from that on TV and the increasing role of FAST service owned-and-operated channels, please dig into the replay of the webinar.