2024 is the ultimate election year. A total of 91 countries-including the U.S., the U.K., India, and 27 European Union nations-will hold elections. In this context, it s no surprise to witness platforms and news outlets finessing their FAST channel strategy. The BBC News FAST channel launch was perfectly timed in that regard. BBC News is now available as a FAST channel on platforms like Pluto TV, Samsung TV Plus, Xumo Play, VIZIO, and more.
What do Walmart s recent acquisition of Vizio and rumors of Amazon Prime absorbing Freevee tell us about the state of the FAST ecosystem? How can companies like Tubi and Fremantle optimize their FAST offerings in a shifting media landscape? Tubi s Sam Harowitz and Fremantle s Laura Florence offer their takes in this discussion with Media Cartographer Evan Shapiro at Streaming Media Connect 2024.
Google TV Senior Director of Engineering Shobana Radhakrishnan discusses ongoing shifts in M&E content consumption like the growth of CTV and streaming relative to traditional linear broadcast, the continued fragmentation of the streaming content market, and how the transition to more advertising-based monetization models will impact the overall revenue picture in 2024-26 in this clip from her Streaming Media Connect keynote.
As we move well into the era of FAST 2.0, will the strategies that brought FAST success in its early days still pay off and ensure continued growth? Is it time for FAST pioneers to re-innovate? And what can the success of primetime YouTube channels teach FAST brands about evolving their strategic roadmap in a mature, less Wild West-like FAST ecosystem? Tastemade s Evan Bregman, ESHAP s Evan Shapiro, Gusto TV s Chris Knight, and TMB s Cameron Saless discuss in this clip from Streaming Media Connect 2023.
Nothing makes recommendation engines-and every other means of profit-making leverage-go, go, go like data in its many varieties. Metadata in particular is the key to personalizing viewer experiences and optimizing content portfolios. AI plays an ever-greater role in enhancing the metadata quality and improving recommendations. As analysts focused on the M&E industry and insiders at major media companies playing critical strategic roles agree, data is also essential to understanding customer journeys and making informed decisions on how to reach and retain subscribers and, on the ad-supported side, deliver the right ads to audiences and the right audiences to brands.