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AUGUST 2024
WORLD VIEW By Mansha Daswani.
SCALING OPPORTUNITIES A spotlight on how distributors with significant libraries are approaching channel curation with BBC Studios’ Beth Anderson, ITV Studios’ Graham Haigh and All3Media International’s Amanda Stevens.
SAMSUNG TV PLUS’S JENN BATTY Jenn Batty, director of content partnerships in Europe and the Middle East at Samsung’s FAST channel service, weighed in on her wish lists and articulated her approach to working with IP owners.
PLUTO TV’S KATRINA KOWALSKI As senior VP of international content programming and acquisitions, Katrina Kowalski leads Pluto TV’s strategy for serving viewers in markets outside the U.S.
ROKU MEDIA’S DAVID EILENBERG Roku Media’s head of content, David Eilenberg, discussed what’s driving the gains at The Roku Channel and his strategies for acquisitions and originals.
PLATFORM PERSPECTIVE What are independent platforms looking for in content partnerships? This session delivered that intelligence from Plex’s Scott Olechowski, wedotv’s Philipp Rotermund and Free TV Networks’ Thanasis Tsiris.
TUBI’S DAVID SALMON On the heels of its U.K. launch, Tubi’s executive VP and managing director for international, David Salmon, outlined the AVOD platform’s global growth opportunity.
RAKUTEN TV’S MARCOS MILANEZ Marcos Milanez, chief content officer at Rakuten TV, showcased how the service is driving AVOD usage across Europe with its slate of acquired fare and originals.
CINEVERSE’S CHRIS MCGURK Led by chairman and CEO Chris McGurk, Cineverse is driving gains with its assortment of streaming services, FAST channels and new search and discoverability tools.
LIONSGATE’S CHASE BRISBIN Chase Brisbin, Lionsgate’s recently promoted executive VP of international SVOD sales and head of global channels, showcased how the independent studio is tapping into its extensive library in the FAST space.
LIGHTNING INTERNATIONAL’S JAMES ROSS James Ross, the CEO of Lightning International, discussed the traction the company is seeing with its genre-based FAST channels, including services across music, movies, documentaries and news.
FAST KIDS This genre spotlight on opportunities for kids’ IP owners in the FAST space heard insights from WildBrain’s Lara Ilie, 9 Story Media Group’s Elianne Friend and pocket.watch’s Corinna Fisher.
MOVIE TIME Amid a wealth of AVOD services and FAST channels for movies, VA Media’s Mark Ashbridge, Candlelight Media Group’s Scott Wiscombe and Nicely Entertainment’s Scott Kirkpatrick offered their views on curation, cutting through the clutter and opportunities for originals
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
Senior Associate Editor
Jamie Stalcup
Associate Editor
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
Ute Schwemmer
Ricardo Seguin Guise
President
Anna Carugati
Executive VP
Mansha Daswani
Associate Publisher & VP of Strategic Development
BY MANSHA DASWANI
Full Speed Ahead
Choice fatigue is real, lean-back viewing still matters, connected TV usage is gaining ground, and despite some speed bumps, the FAST sector holds a wealth of potential for IP owners—as long as you’re smart and strategic about how you approach it.
Those were among the key takeaways of World Screen’s second annual FAST Festival, which convened to explore the opportunities, and pain points, in AVOD and FAST. You can catch up on all of the keynotes and panels in this edition. Amid consumers’ abundant options, discoverability tools and smart curation were stressed by the AVOD and FAST programmers we heard from: Samsung TV Plus’s Jenn Batty, Pluto TV’s Katrina Kowalski, Rakuten TV’s Marcos Milanez, Roku Media’s David Eilenberg, Tubi’s David Salmon, Plex’s Scott Olechowski, wedotv’s Philipp Rotermund and Free TV Networks’ Thanasis Tsiris. James Ross, the CEO of Lightning International, highlighted the importance of skilled curation in his keynote session, while Cineverse’s Chris McGurk stressed the role of data analytics. Using analytics—when you can get them—was a major theme of our superpanel with BBC Studios’ Beth Anderson, ITV Studios’ Graham Haigh and All3Media International’s Amanda Stevens on how distributors of scale should approach setting up and curating FAST channels. Chase Brisbin discussed how Lionsgate is bringing its catalog to AVOD and FAST, including with MovieSphere. We explored the AVOD market for movies at the festival and spotlighted the emerging FAST channel space for kids.
SCALING OPPORTUNITIES
The second edition of the FAST Festival kicked off with a spotlight on how distributors with significant libraries are approaching channel curation with BBC Studios’ Beth Anderson, ITV Studios’ Graham Haigh and All3Media International’s Amanda Stevens.
FAST is not cannibalistic to other business models, but it’s also not a stand-alone business. It’s part of an overall media flywheel. Brands are served by having a multi-tenet distribution strategy and content available in multiple places.”
—Beth Anderson
If we can’t eff ectively schedule a channel based on the most data we can access and have that transparency across not just our channels but all of the uni verse, then nobody wins. If we generate and schedule a more eff ective channel that drives more viewing, that benefits us and our platform partners.”
—Graham Haigh
There is a lack of consistency across all platforms about what’s being reported. We are constantly tracking highest- and lowest-rating shows and the strongest dayparts if you want to launch new content and performance over time.”
—Amanda Stevens
Samsung TV Plus’s
JENN BATTY
Jenn Batty, director of content partnerships in Europe and the Middle East at Samsung’s FAST channel service, weighed in on her wish lists and articulated her approach to working with IP owners.
One of the exciting things about FAST is that you can have pop-up channels. We will acquire content that we put into our owned-and-operated channels to see how it works. If it’s something that’s popping for us, we can do a pop-up channel. The cost to launch a FAST channel is significantly less than launching a pay-TV channel. Our eyes are open to pretty much anything. We look at and assess each [piece of] content and each title diff erently and how it would resonate with our audience.”
Pluto TV’s
KATRINA KOW
As senior VP of international content programming and acquisitions, Katrina Kowalski leads Pluto TV’s strategy for serving viewers in markets outside the U.S.
OWALSKI
The beauty of the digital world is that we have data at our fingertips almost instantaneously. We’re relying on it, making changes and iterating all the time. We want to ensure that we’re constantly making decisions rooted in data to propel the service. Sometimes, a show will have huge numbers and we’ll keep that on the platform for as long as possible. Sometimes, a show has a smaller audience, but the minutes per user are increasing, so we know we’ve got a niche audience. How we read the data, analyze it and make those choices can be different per region, per show, in the genre, even seasonally. Data is critical. We couldn’t be where we are without it.”
Roku Media’s
DAVID EILENB
Roku Media’s head of content, David Eilenberg, discussed what’s driving the gains at The Roku Channel and his strategies for acquisitions and originals.
ENBERG
The 30- and 15-second spots are always going to be important to any advertisers’ plans, but we are starting to see an uptick in advertisers and media agencies wanting to be directly involved in longer-form storytelling, whether that’s in documentary, specials and perhaps, going forward, even in scripted series. That’s a place where the worlds of content and advertising directly overlap. We’re trying to become a good home for advertisers to tell stories that are important to them.”
PLATFORM PERSPECTIVE
What are independent platforms looking for in content partnerships?
This session delivered that intelligence from Plex’s Scott Olechowski, wedotv’s Philipp Rotermund and Free TV Networks’ Thanasis Tsiris.
When we started in 2018, it was tough to find content. But since AVOD has evolved and everyone is talking about FAST, content owners are being more flexible on diff erent business models.” —Philipp Rotermund
We will almost always have some tentpole [titles] that’ll bring folks in, and then we look at that halo—if you come in for X, can we get you to Y and Z? Often, we’ll go very deep in a genre so that people can go down that rabbit hole.” —Scott Olechowski
About 80 percent of the revenue has been driven o ff of 20 percent of the content. On the flip side, you’ve got 80 percent of your content fighting for that bottom 20 percent of the revenue. If you get to a point where you start seeing diminishing returns on that long-tail content, that presents a problem. Curation and new product features go a long way in solving that. ” —Thanasis Tsiris
Tubi’s
DAVID SALMO
On the heels of its U.K. launch, Tubi’s executive VP and managing director for international, David Salmon, outlined the AVOD platform’s global growth opportunity.
MON
There is a tendency with BVOD and SVOD platforms to be clustered around a monoculture. They’re focused on super-serving the median viewer; trying to have one piece of content be watched by as many people as possible. That creates a lot of concentration for demos in the middle. It means you have these interesting, diverse demos that get underserved by any of those platforms. [In the U.K.] we’ve got 20,000 titles as a starting point. We’re hoping to provide amazing content discovery. We’re going broad; we’re going deep. We want to offer choice to consumers.”
Rakuten TV’s
MARCOS MIL
Marcos Milanez, chief content officer at Rakuten TV, showcased how the service is driving AVOD usage across Europe with its slate of acquired fare and originals.
MILANEZ
Throughout the day, you might have more kids’ or news content than at night, when you’d see other types of genres. The same [thing] happens with weekdays and weekends. We noticed that the consumption of FAST channels and AVOD, depending on the genre, diff ers depending if it’s a weekday or weekend, daytime or nighttime. And it’s quite different as well from the consumption on TVOD. There’s certainly plenty more to do in terms of customization and segmentation, where you can always drill down to more and more layers.”
Cineverse’s
CHRIS MCGU
Led by chairman and CEO Chris McGurk, Cineverse is driving gains with its assortment of streaming services, FAST channels and new search and discoverability tools.
GURK
We’re data-driven and analytic. We use our technology to [identify] what’s working and what’s not. Plus, we’re also a studio. We have a 70,000-title library. We have the knowledge base of what works in the marketplace, and we apply that against our channels. At the beginning of FAST, people threw a lot of channels up to see what would stick. Now the business is evolving to be more like basic cable, where it’s important that you have programming expertise. We make sure that programming drives our acquisition process and not the other way around. ”
Lionsgate’s
CHASE BRISB
Chase Brisbin, Lionsgate’s recently promoted executive VP of international SVOD sales and head of global channels, showcased how the independent studio is tapping into its extensive library in the FAST space.
SBIN
We do both multi-content and single-series IPs. We’ve also begun leaning into partnerships with existing brands that have awareness already and their own organic reach. We’re learning a lot about programming. We try not to look at just the top 10 percent. We try to see some of our more surprising performers. We also look at the bottom 20 percent to see what’s not performing at all. Maybe those need to be removed from that channel, used on a different channel or rested for a while. Refresh is important, but we’re also spending time and understanding dayparts. ”
Lightning International’s
JAMES ROSS
James Ross, the CEO of Lightning International, discussed the traction the company is seeing with its genre-based FAST channels, including services across music, movies, documentaries and news.
The lean-back experience is one of the great positives of FAST.
Narrowing the choice, to some extent, is required because people’s minds get blown if there’s too much content thrown at them and they’re scrolling through rails of individual videos or channels. When something’s successful, there is a tendency to jump on the bandwagon and push it as far as you can. We don’t want to kill the golden goose—we are in danger of doing that if we confuse audiences with too much content. We all have to work harder to deliver consistently good-quality, entertaining, gripping content that audiences want.”
FAST KIDS
This genre spotlight on opportunities for kids’ IP owners in the FAST space heard insights from WildBrain’s Lara Ilie, 9 Story Media Group’s Elianne Friend and pocket.watch’s Corinna Fisher.
We’re trying to manage the scheduling with marketing—maybe a licensing activation or an advertising campaign running on other channels. We’re synchronizing all this with the kids in mind and providing them with a seamless experience that gets them excited about the channels they’re watching.”
—Lara Ilie
It feels like it’s coming full circle for the kids’ viewing experience. Connected TVs are on the rise, outperforming mobile, which used to be the biggest device that people would watch on. This shift makes us feel like FAST is going to grow even further.” —Elianne
Friend
We plan our lineups to maximize a day-over-day and week-over-week refresh so that the channels always feel new and fresh. We also plan around cultural, marketable moments that are relevant to our audience. ”
—Corinna Fisher
MOVIE TIME
Amid a wealth of AVOD services and FAST channels for movies, VA Media’s Mark Ashbridge, Candlelight Media Group’s Scott Wiscombe and Nicely Entertainment’s Scott Kirkpatrick o ff ered their views on curation, cutting through the clutter and opportunities for originals.
We’ve seen a tremendous uptick in our AVOD numbers. We’ve prioritized how we’re going to be strategically thinking about AVOD moving forward.” —Scott Kirkpatrick
We track what we call the video funnel, which is conversion points all the way through from impressions to views to monetized playbacks. Then, we can get a sense of what the revenue will be from a specific asset. We’re using AI to produce thumbnails. We can see that an AI-based thumbnail might increase our click- through rate.” —Mark Ashbridge
Trying to understand how a title is doing across the platforms is tricky because you can’t match up apples to apples. That being said, it is still very important. It helps inform us from an AVOD standpoint of what titles are performing better.” —Scott
Wiscombe
Trending On
The most-viewed clips on our video portals in the last month.
Boy & Dragon
In a boundless notebook world lives a brave young knight and his oafish pet dragon. Together, they go on bizarre adventures and wreak magical mayhem. (WildBrain)
The Zweiflers
Romance on the Ranch
After her truck breaks down while moving across the country, a woman finds help from a kind rancher and love where she least expects it. (Candlelight Media Group)
Family patriarch Symcha Zweifler wants to sell his delicatessen empire when suddenly he is confronted with his past in Frankfurt’s red-light district. (ZDF Studios)
Grapes of Love
Celebrity Fight Club
Two fun-loving celebrity friends each recruit 25 of their fans to face off in a series of head-turning challenges. (TV Asahi Corporation)
During a summer day in Montenegro, Kerem and Sevda fall in love. However, soon they are faced with obstacles that try to separate them. (Eccho Rights)
