Blue Ant’s FAST Philosophy
In this exclusive interview with Yako Molhov, Jamie Schouela, President, Global Channels and Media, Blue Ant Media, talks about the company’s fast-growing portfolio of FAST channels and their strategy to reach users with “event programming” and special marketing campaigns.
Jamie Schouela, President, Global Channels and Media, Blue Ant Media
How many FAST channels does Blue Ant currently have and will you launch new ones in 2023?
Blue Ant Media now operates 7 FAST channels including Love Nature, HauntTV, Total Crime (CrimeTime in Canada), Homeful, HistoryTime, Drag Race Universe and Love Pets. While we’re currently exploring other potential channels to launch later this year, our priority over the coming months is to continue building distribution for our existing brands, both in the US and increasingly globally as free streaming demand from audiences builds in many markets.
What is your distribution footprint? Which services carry your channels and how many territories do you cover?
Over the last two years, Blue Ant has rapidly expanded its portfolio of FAST channels to over 40 countries, which includes seven FAST channels active in the U.S., four in Canada, and a growing number of channels live in the UK, Australia/New Zealand and across Europe and Latin America. As part of this growth, the company has built partnerships with all of the major streaming platforms including Amazon Freevee, VIZIO WatchFree+, The Roku Channel, Samsung TV Plus, Tubi, Xumo, PlutoTV, Sling Freestreaming and others. Viewership across Blue Ant Media’s FAST channels increased 395% year over year in 2022 from 175 million to 870 million minutes viewed on average per month.
What are the main benefits of FAST channels, from a business perspective, over traditional linear channels and streaming, namely AVOD?
Well, most obviously, FAST is free for viewers, so it’s additive to audiences current offering, whether that’s pay TV or SVOD and there’s no barrier to entry. All you need is WIFI to access and most services don’t even require registration. Because of this free streaming is attracting a broad audience across all demographics. Additionally, FAST channels offer a lean-back viewing experience, a nice change for viewers used to spending time hunting through on-demand services figuring out what they want to watch. From a business perspective, the cost to launch a FAST channel is significantly cheaper than traditional cable channels and as long as you control content rights, they are easy to scale globally. And for advertisers it offers association with premium, brand safe content on a big screen, but with the targetability of digital platforms.
FAST channels have been gaining momentum lately. To what do you attribute their success with viewers, is them being free the main reason?
The free offering might bring viewers to FAST, but we believe that there are a few reasons that have allowed our brands to succeed among 400+ channels on certain platforms. First, Blue Ant’s channels focus on niche genres with clearly defined audiences (for example nature lovers, or fans of ghost stories) and then curate a line-up of premium content that delivers on this focused area. We refresh this content on a regular basis and ensure that the majority of it is exclusive to our channels so viewers can’t find these series on other FAST channels in the ecosystem. We also ensure that we have ongoing marketing initiatives and a clear channel name so viewers understand exactly what they’ll get as soon as they find us in the guide.
Do you also produce content specifically for FAST channels?
Blue Ant already commissions original series for our pay TV channels in Canada, and our global FAST brands are focused on many of the same genres so we will window the originals into these channels. In certain markets this may be after a pay TV or SVOD play on another platform, especially in the short term as the economics of FAST in many regions are still nascent. However, in certain cases, we’ll make our FAST channel the premiere in a territory, as we did earlier this year when Love Nature Wildlife ER launched simultaneously globally on the brand’s PayTV channels and its FAST channel in the U.S. In the months ahead, we’ll continue to take a market by market approach to determine when we’ll bring original series to our free streaming channels.
We’re also using our FAST channels to help guide our commissioning decisions by closely monitoring the classic series that viewers are responding to. As the channels build distribution, we’re going to continue watching and learning what audiences are consuming, with specific consideration to formats and concepts that can travel well globally.
Is the FAST channels market ‘oversaturated’ already and how do you make sure Blue Ant channels stay popular?
The FAST landscape is becoming incredibly competitive, especially in the U.S. market, and platforms are becoming much more selective in the new channels that they launch and retain.
Blue Ant Media stands out with clear channel offerings that give audiences exclusive content and proven IP that they love and recognize. For example, this past Fall, Blue Ant acquired the library of TV reno celebrity Mike Holmes as FAST exclusive programming for the Homeful channel. The deal signaled an opportunity to attract audiences with home-focused content they know and love, with an added commitment to commission new Mike Holmes series for the channel. Additionally, Blue Ant entered into a partnership with production company World of Wonder to curate and distribute the Drag Race Universe channel in the US, which offers audiences exclusive access to over a dozen international versions of one of the largest reality franchises in the world - all available for the first time ever in the free streaming ecosystem.
Additionally, to break through the clutter and rise to the top with audiences, we leverage our programming and marketing teams to create monthly themes and stunts. These highly engaging events provide ongoing fresh marketing opportunities for the channels. Great examples are Love Nature’s “Love Earth” event in April to celebrate Earth Month or Haunt TV’s “Spooktober” timed to Halloween.
Blue Ant Media now operates 7 FAST channels including Love Nature, HauntTV, Total Crime (CrimeTime in Canada), Homeful, HistoryTime, Drag Race Universe and Love Pets. While we’re currently exploring other potential channels to launch later this year, our priority over the coming months is to continue building distribution for our existing brands, both in the US and increasingly globally as free streaming demand from audiences builds in many markets.
What is your distribution footprint? Which services carry your channels and how many territories do you cover?
Over the last two years, Blue Ant has rapidly expanded its portfolio of FAST channels to over 40 countries, which includes seven FAST channels active in the U.S., four in Canada, and a growing number of channels live in the UK, Australia/New Zealand and across Europe and Latin America. As part of this growth, the company has built partnerships with all of the major streaming platforms including Amazon Freevee, VIZIO WatchFree+, The Roku Channel, Samsung TV Plus, Tubi, Xumo, PlutoTV, Sling Freestreaming and others. Viewership across Blue Ant Media’s FAST channels increased 395% year over year in 2022 from 175 million to 870 million minutes viewed on average per month.
What are the main benefits of FAST channels, from a business perspective, over traditional linear channels and streaming, namely AVOD?
Well, most obviously, FAST is free for viewers, so it’s additive to audiences current offering, whether that’s pay TV or SVOD and there’s no barrier to entry. All you need is WIFI to access and most services don’t even require registration. Because of this free streaming is attracting a broad audience across all demographics. Additionally, FAST channels offer a lean-back viewing experience, a nice change for viewers used to spending time hunting through on-demand services figuring out what they want to watch. From a business perspective, the cost to launch a FAST channel is significantly cheaper than traditional cable channels and as long as you control content rights, they are easy to scale globally. And for advertisers it offers association with premium, brand safe content on a big screen, but with the targetability of digital platforms.
Love Nature Wildlife ER
FAST channels have been gaining momentum lately. To what do you attribute their success with viewers, is them being free the main reason?
The free offering might bring viewers to FAST, but we believe that there are a few reasons that have allowed our brands to succeed among 400+ channels on certain platforms. First, Blue Ant’s channels focus on niche genres with clearly defined audiences (for example nature lovers, or fans of ghost stories) and then curate a line-up of premium content that delivers on this focused area. We refresh this content on a regular basis and ensure that the majority of it is exclusive to our channels so viewers can’t find these series on other FAST channels in the ecosystem. We also ensure that we have ongoing marketing initiatives and a clear channel name so viewers understand exactly what they’ll get as soon as they find us in the guide.
Do you also produce content specifically for FAST channels?
Blue Ant already commissions original series for our pay TV channels in Canada, and our global FAST brands are focused on many of the same genres so we will window the originals into these channels. In certain markets this may be after a pay TV or SVOD play on another platform, especially in the short term as the economics of FAST in many regions are still nascent. However, in certain cases, we’ll make our FAST channel the premiere in a territory, as we did earlier this year when Love Nature Wildlife ER launched simultaneously globally on the brand’s PayTV channels and its FAST channel in the U.S. In the months ahead, we’ll continue to take a market by market approach to determine when we’ll bring original series to our free streaming channels.
We’re also using our FAST channels to help guide our commissioning decisions by closely monitoring the classic series that viewers are responding to. As the channels build distribution, we’re going to continue watching and learning what audiences are consuming, with specific consideration to formats and concepts that can travel well globally.
Is the FAST channels market ‘oversaturated’ already and how do you make sure Blue Ant channels stay popular?
The FAST landscape is becoming incredibly competitive, especially in the U.S. market, and platforms are becoming much more selective in the new channels that they launch and retain.
Mike Holmes
Blue Ant Media stands out with clear channel offerings that give audiences exclusive content and proven IP that they love and recognize. For example, this past Fall, Blue Ant acquired the library of TV reno celebrity Mike Holmes as FAST exclusive programming for the Homeful channel. The deal signaled an opportunity to attract audiences with home-focused content they know and love, with an added commitment to commission new Mike Holmes series for the channel. Additionally, Blue Ant entered into a partnership with production company World of Wonder to curate and distribute the Drag Race Universe channel in the US, which offers audiences exclusive access to over a dozen international versions of one of the largest reality franchises in the world - all available for the first time ever in the free streaming ecosystem.
Additionally, to break through the clutter and rise to the top with audiences, we leverage our programming and marketing teams to create monthly themes and stunts. These highly engaging events provide ongoing fresh marketing opportunities for the channels. Great examples are Love Nature’s “Love Earth” event in April to celebrate Earth Month or Haunt TV’s “Spooktober” timed to Halloween.
