World Screen August 2023

FAST Festival 2023 Recap

WORLD VIEW By Mansha Daswani.

PLUTO TV’S OLIVIER JOLLET The executive VP and international general manager discussed what’s driving the gains at the Paramount-owned AVOD service.

SAMSUNG TV PLUS’S DECISION-MAKERS We heard about the strategy for Samsung TV Plus from Jennifer Batty, head of content acquisitions in Europe, and Aline Jabbour, business development director for Latin America.

RAKUTEN TV’S MARCOS MILANEZ The chief content officer talked about the European platform’s FAST channel bouquet and his approach to acquisitions and originals.

TUBI’S ADAM LEWINSON The chief content officer at Fox Corporation’s Tubi discussed curation and what’s driving viewership across the AVOD platform’s 200-plus FAST channels.

FREMANTLE’S JENS RICHTER An expanding suite of FAST channels is part of Jens Richter’s remit as CEO of commercial and international.

DISTRIBUTION MIGHT ITV Studios’ Graham Haigh, All3Media International’s Gary Woolf, Cineflix Rights’ Mike Gould and Banijay Rights’ Shaun Keeble weighed in on how they are utilizing their company’s significant catalogs in the FAST space.

AT THE MOVIES FAST channels have become valuable new outlets for independent film distributors; Nicely Entertainment’s Scott Kirkpatrick and Candlelight Media Group’s Scott Wiscombe offered their perspectives on the business today and where it’s heading.

FAST FACTS Autentic’s Dr. Patrick Hörl, Blue Ant International’s Solange Attwood and Albatross World Sales’ Lisa Schelhas discussed the opportunities they’re pursuing in the factual FAST channels business.

NBCUNIVERSAL’S MATT SCHNAARS The president of content distribution outlined NBCUniversal’s strategy for licensing product and building single-IP brands in the FAST space.

WARNER BROS. DISCOVERY’S DAVID DECKER The president of content sales discussed how FAST fits into the company’s overall approach for monetizing its extensive slate of movies and series.

SPI INTERNATIONAL’S FAST TRACK Haymi Behar, the chief marketing and digital officer, spotlighted the CANAL+ Group-owned company’s slate of FAST channels and the crucial role of curation.

COMMON SENSE NETWORKS’ ERIC BERGER The company’s CEO and co-founder discussed how it is serving kids across multiple platforms in the AVOD space.

FILMRISE GOES FAST Max Einhorn, the senior VP of acquisitions and co-productions, talked about the strategies that have made the company the largest independently owned operator of ad-supported streaming apps and FAST channels.

POCKET.WATCH’S CHRIS M. WILLIAMS The founder and CEO shared the role that FAST plays for pocket.watch as it builds content from the creator economy into multiplatform brands.

LIGHTNING FAST Lightning International is building up a portfolio of curated FAST services; James Ross offered up insights on the Hong Kong- and London-based company’s strategy.

FAST PLANNING WITH ZONE·TV Jeff Weber, the CEO of zone·tv, outlined how the company is aiding IP owners as they navigate the FAST space with its next-generation solutions.

TRENDING ON The most-viewed clips on our video portals for the last 30 days.

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Publisher

Ricardo Seguin Guise

Editor-in-Chief

Mansha Daswani

Editor-at-Large

Anna Carugati

Executive Editor

Kristin Brzoznowski

Associate Editors

Jamie Stalcup

Alexa Alfano

Editor, Spanish-Language Publications

Elizabeth Bowen-Tombari

Production & Design Director

David Diehl

Online Director

Simon Weaver

Sales & Marketing Director

Dana Mattison

Sales & Marketing Manager

Genovick Acevedo

Bookkeeper

Daphne Menard

Ricardo Seguin Guise

President

Anna Carugati

Executive VP

Mansha Daswani

Associate Publisher & VP of Strategic Development

BY MANSHA DASWANI

FAST Learning Curve

More than 1,700 media executives registered to access our virtual FAST Festival last month, with some 3,000 views across 16 fantastic sessions focused on every segment of the business, from the platforms to the channel operators to the content power houses navigating the ecosystem to the tech players upgrading this old-school style of viewing for a new age.

We heard a few recurring themes across the sessions, which you can view in this interactive digital edition. Old-school schedulers are back in vogue, with there being an art to curating a compelling linear lineup. Science is just as important, from the ability to analyze analytics to having the right technology for your user interface and recommendation algorithms. The data is still a bit of a mess, with a lack of standardization making it a challenge for IP owners to truly understand how their content is resonating. The lack of standardization in managing deliverables is also a headache for content owners, creating opportunities for aggregators, especially those that can help smaller distributors navigate the ecosystem. Scale and volume matter, as even though startup costs for FAST channels don’t rise to the level of investments needed for an old-school pay channel, they are still significant. The models available when working with FAST platforms range from traditional license fees to revenue and inventory shares and every permutation in between. The revenues aren’t huge yet for individual deals, but if you’re operating at scale, they can become significant, especially on back catalog that you aren’t monetizing. And these days, as the media industry braces for further fallout, chasing down every revenue opportunity isn’t the worst idea.

Pluto TV’s

OLIVIER JOLL

Olivier Jollet, executive VP and international general manager, discussed what’s driving the gains at the Paramount-owned AVOD service.

Read the recap here.

LLET

We all need to acknowledge that the U.S. is way more advanced than most other territories. The U.S. is not only a very advanced ad market, but it is also the biggest ad market in the world and a great market for FAST. A lot of markets are catching up with the U.S. The programmatic advertising adoption is booming. The U.K., GSA, France and Canada are probably two to three years behind the U.S. but are catching up at a speedy pace. I expect those markets to be more or less at the same level quite quickly. It means a brilliant future for digital advertising in those territories.”

DECISION-MA Samsung TV Plus’s

We heard about the strategy for Samsung TV Plus from Jennifer Batty, head of content acquisitions in Europe, and Aline Jabbour, business development director for Latin America. Read the recap here.

MAKERS

FA ST has had a little bit of a bad rap from when it first launched: put any content out there on a FAST channel!

[We are] bringing the best, strongest quality content we can to consumers. It’s exciting. When you’re programming one channel, you’ve only got 24 hours. We have 100 channels. It gives you a deeper breadth of content. ” —Jennifer

Batty

Across the board, our ambition is to provide content that reflects the cultural identities of each country, goes beyond entertainment and ensures a high-quality viewing experience for families.” —Aline

Jabbour

Rakuten TV’s

MARCOS MIL

Marcos Milanez, chief content officer at Rakuten TV, talked about the European platform’s FAST channel bouquet and his approach to acquisitions and originals.

Read the recap here.

MILANEZ

overlap to the lineup or cannibalize our existing channels. It also comes down to: Is that content relevant to those local markets? Has that channel or programs within that channel been broadcast into free or pay TV before in the market? Does it have a strong following from the local audiences? Those are the first pillars that we look at within the content acquisition strategy to then scale down to the actual content IP and editorial.”

[A third-party channel] needs to bring some sort of diff erential so that we don’t add an

Tubi’s ADAM LEWIN

The chief content officer at Fox Corporation’s Tubi, Adam Lewinson, discussed curation and what’s driving viewership across the AVOD platform’s 200-plus FAST channels.

Read the recap here.

WINSON

Predominantly, television viewing has been free. The perception was flipped over the past several years and the rise of SVODs. And now we’ve seen, due to macroeconomic factors and ultimately so much content and so many di ff erent platforms for viewers to choose from, the average viewer is really settling in on one, maybe two SVOD services and then increasingly, the bulk of their viewing behavior is being satisfied with free content. Our vision has always been that the future of television is going to be free and specifically on-demand.”

JENS RICHTE Fremantle’s

An expanding suite of FAST channels is part of Jens Richter’s remit at Fremantle as CEO of commercial and international.

Read the recap here.

It helps the life of your brand. The other thing that’s exciting in this model is data. In our conventional licensing model, we hand over our programs to the platforms and the broadcasters, and they take over from there. When we own and operate our channels in the FAST space, especially in a revenue-share model or inventoryshare, we have data. We can see how the shows perform. We can play with refresh rates; we can play with scheduling; we can play with stunts; we can play with communication. We have a direct impact on how our show performs.”

DISTRIBUTION MIGHT

ITV Studios’ Graham Haigh, All3Media International’s Gary Woolf, Cineflix Rights’ Mike Gould and Banijay Rights’ Shaun Keeble weighed in on how they are utilizing their company’s significant catalogs in the FAST space.

Read the recap here.

DISTRIBUTION MIGHT

We’re looking at IPs that may have already had a presence in a first- or second-window run, and then looking at a third- or fourth-window in the FAST space for commercial benefit but also to help drive new viewership and collect data.” —Shaun

We are the biggest U.K. commercial broadcaster. How can we utilize that strength in this world to drive an incremental revenue stream?”

When scrolling through an EPG that does get longer, you want brands that stand out.”

The single-IP channel gives that immediate binge experience for the superfan. It’s reliable engagement. In defense of the genre brand, where we see the advantage of those is in their long-term value.

—Graham Haigh

Keeble

”

—Mike Gould

—Gary Woolf

AT THE MOVIES

FAST channels have become valuable new outlets for independent film distributors; Nicely Entertainment’ s Scott Kirkpatrick and Candlelight Media Group’s Scott Wiscombe offered their perspectives on the business today and where it’s heading.

Read the recap here.

Movies have always worked well in VOD. They’re short, digestible pieces of media property. There’s not a massive time commitment. In the FAST space specifically, they work great because they can be programmed neatly into slots, and you can theme and bulk a lot of them together. Once audiences have a vertical or a type of genre they prefer, they can sit down with one channel, invest in it and find movie after movie.” —Scott

Kirkpatrick

Apart from the monetary startup standpoint, it’s time-consuming. It takes some expertise to launch, monitor and manage a channel. You don’t want viewers to get bored if you’re always showing the same things. So it’s ensuring you have enough content to start and enough opportunity to add new content.”

—Scott Wiscombe

FAST FACTS

Autentic’s Dr. Patrick Hörl, Blue Ant International’s Solange Attwood and Albatross World Sales’ Lisa Schelhas discussed the opportunities they’re pursuing in the factual FAST channels business. Read the recap here.

FAST FACTS

AVOD has had substantial growth. As part of our windowing strategy, it has become incredibly important, especially in monetizing deep catalog. It is a bright shining spot with major year-over-year growth, especially in the last two years.” —Solange

Attwood

We run our own FAST channels and make content available to other people’s FAST channels. We don’t know which horse is going to run faster, and we are still learning about FAST. If you look at Europe, it’s difficult to say how much of a business this is and how the dynamics work. We have our hands in all pots possible.” —Patrick

Hörl

We still work mostly with linear broadcasters. We can’t prioritize FAST for our newer content. We usually have revenueshare agreements with [operators], sometimes with a minimum guarantee on top.” —Lisa

Schelhas

MATT SCHNA NBCUniversal’s

NBCUniversal is expanding its extensive roster of FAST channels; Matt Schnaars, president of content distribution, outlined the company’s strategy for licensing product and building single-IP brands. Read the recap here.

NAARS

It’s important to note that we’re utilizing a lot of content produced long ago that’s not being monetized in the ecosystem otherwise. We’re not taking the same thing we’re putting on cable channels, broadcast networks or Peacock and just putting it on a FAST platform. We think that would be the wrong strategy for a variety of reasons. This is a di ff erent product set, leveraging a lot of studio IP that has been monetized in some cases or was monetized long ago. And because of the beauty of technology and the internet, we’ve found new platforms and environments where people are interested in that content again, and we can monetize it.”

DAVID DECKE Warner Bros. Discovery’s

David Decker, the president of content sales at Warner Bros. Discovery, discussed how FAST fits into the company’s overall approach for monetizing its extensive slate of movies and series. Read the recap here.

CKER ry’s

The general expectation or requirement is a quarterly to semiannual refresh of the content. That will vary by channel, deal and platform. We’ve baked into our deals a refresh as we go. It’s also been communicated to us that if you do that with a quicker refresh rate, you might accelerate the adoption of the channels. We’re going to experiment on that. We also know that when people find a show they like, they go back to it over and over again. If there are fan favorites, we’re not going to mess with them. We don’t want people looking for it again if they’ve already found it. We want them to find it again and again and then find ways of monetizing it.”

SPI INTERNATIONA

FAST TRACK

Haymi Behar, chief marketing and digital officer at SPI International (a CANAL+ company), spotlighted the company’s slate of FAST channels and the crucial role of curation.

Read the recap here.

ONAL’S K

When you leave the curation to machines, the algorithms will always show you something based on your past. Curation is based on data of viewers’ choices and also on certain occasions. Seasonality is important, and current events are important. Curation is key, and it [is backed by] years of TV building experience. As a traditional pay-TV broadcaster worldwide, SPI is now applying this know-how to our digital apps and off ering it through operators.”

ERIC BERGER Common Sense Networks

Sense Networks CEO and

Eric Berger discussed how the company is serving kids across multiple platforms in the AVOD space.

Read the recap here .

Common

co-founder

As we partner with leading platforms like TikTok and YouTube to help them elevate the quality of children’s digital media, we see a way to bring world-class content vetting and curation to the FAST space. FAST is increasing tremendously, but the kids’ sector is lagging in terms of monetization. Brands are concerned about trust, privacy issues and a lack of standards. We believe that we off er solutions that work not only for kids and families but also for brands and platforms. This is true on FAST channels as well as across other media.”

FILMRISE GOES FAST

Max Einhorn, senior VP of acquisitions and co-productions at FilmRise, talked about the strategies that have made the company the largest independently owned operator of ad-supported streaming apps and FAST channels.

Read the recap here.

Generally, we’re licensing all digital or ad-supported streaming rights, including FAST. What’s important to distinguish FilmRise from others participating in this space is that we are a full-fledged, full-service distributor with the largest footprint outside the major studios. So, when we work with somebody, our partners derive value from our business across the full spectrum of monetization methods. ”

CHRIS M. WIL pocket.watch’s

Chris M. Williams, the founder and CEO of pocket.watch, shared with delegates the role that FAST plays for the company as it builds content from the creator economy into multiplatform brands. Read the recap here.

WILLIAMS

When I started the company, if you said, ‘You’re going to have two linear channels,’ I would have said you’re crazy. VOD was taking over at that point. It took me by surprise how quickly these FAST services came on. It was important to get real estate early. When we’re extending popular creators’ IP into other areas, we don’t focus on the open platforms like Facebook or Snapchat. We focus on walled gardens where there will be limited options, and you want to be curated into those services.We want to bring kids and families the creator content they crave in ways that parents and platforms can embrace.”

LIGHTNING FAST

Lightning International is building up a portfolio of curated FAST services; James Ross o ff ered up insights on the Hong Kong- and London-based company’s strategy.

Read the recap here.

The vibe we’re getting from the platforms is that they’re very focused on quality. It’s no longer about quantity. And they are looking for brand names to drive the platforms and well- curated quality channels. That’s something that Lightning has been playing to, bringing into the market the products that will work for operators and be in the upper echelons of the ratings on every platform. That’s what we all need to do to get those revenues.

FAST PLANNING WITH ZONE·TV

Jeff Weber, CEO of zone·tv, outlined how the company is aiding IP owners as they navigate the FAST space with its next-generation solutions. Read the recap here.

Using

If you’re a customer that’s watching a show, and you’re loving it and you want more like it, you zone·ify, and then we use our machine learning, take the enhanced metadata that we’ve created and start to personalize a channel specifically for you . ”

machine learning to personalize is how we curate.

Trending On

The most-viewed clips on our video portals in the last month.

The Six Continents Revealed

Around 200 million years ago, the primeval continent of Pangaea broke up and the continents began their journey to the places they now occupy. Distributor: ZDF Studios

Rhymington Square

Come on down to Rhymington Square and have an adventure if you dare. Distributor: Distribution360

Press Start!

Captures the wish-fulfillment of kids being able to have epic adventures inside a video game world alongside an iconic video game hero. Distributor: Cyber Group Studios

The Big Sex Talk

Places its finger firmly on the pulse of this new landscape of sexual and gender diversity. Distributor: BossaNova

Naked Attraction

How much can we learn about attraction when everything— including clothing—is stripped away? Distributor: All3Media International

Taking place from October 3 to 5, 2023, the second edition of the TV DRAMA FESTIVAL will feature keynotes and panels with leading executives and creatives discussing the major trends in the business of scripted series today. It will be streamed live and available on-demand on TVDramaFestival.com.

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