Videoage International October 2020

16 October 2020 V I D E O A G E T heVoDworld is expanding throughout the globe. In addition to TVoD, SVoD, and AVoD, a new arrival, FAST (Free Ad-supported Streaming Television) is quickly winning over audiences. But while the VoD universe is “on-demand,” FAST is a linear streaming service originally created in Los Angeles in 2014 as Pluto TV. It was acquired by ViacomCBS in 2019. Even though some analysts consider FAST to be the very last window on the rights exploitation grid (after broadcast TV, basic cable, and AVoD), to Danny Fisher, CEO of New York City- based FilmRise, FAST and AVoD co-exist in the same space. “FAST mimics the old broadcast/ cable linear models, and its future is flexibility (fast-forward, rewind, and switch to different episode),” he added. Fisher further explained: “We don’t have FAST channels on our own apps yet, but we expect to launch them in Q4 to mirror our eight AVoD channels. Currently, we control third- party FAST channels (e.g., The Roku Channel, IMDb TV). We refresh 25 percent to 35 percent of FAST programming each month. We program the entire month hour by hour and differentiate between daytimes.” In addition, he said: “We don’t have our own SVoD service. SVoD is a world fueled by high-cost originals. We may do SVoD in the future, but for now we are happy to provide content to third- party SVoD platforms. We like the AVoD world, which is growing at an extremely fast pace, so for now we’re focusing on expanding AVoD and FAST, including international FAST channels.” He also pointed out that “FilmRise is the largest independently-owned AVoD service in the U.S. Our library consists of 30,000 hours. We own 5,000 hours, and the rest is licensed, generally with five-to-10 year licenses, but sometimes for shorter terms, such as three-year licenses. And 90 percent of FilmRise AVoD content is for U.S. viewership.” He went on to say that “the AVoD services to which we provide content are growing territorially (expanding in the U.K., Germany, and LATAM). Our audience is growing inside the existing services, and there are more services as we’re now servicing over a dozen platforms. Viewers are discovering new services, and new services are opening up.” Fisher also noted that “with our Spanish- language service, we reach both Hispanics (in the U.S.) and audiences in Latin America. Currently, we have over 500 hours of content in Spanish, of which one-quarter has been dubbed by us, and the rest of the dubs have been purchased. Whenever possible we go first to Spanish- language broadcasters and producers to acquire the dubs,” he said. According to several researchers, during U.S. lockdowns, over-the-top (OTT) content surged from about 230 million average daily streaming hours in March to as high as 300 million average daily streaming hours in April. During the summer it has leveled at about 280 million average daily streaming hours. However, Fisher pointed out that yes, “the pandemic has increased streaming, but many people have less money so they turned to AVoD because it is free.” He went on to say that “even though the audience increased due to the pandemic, ad spend was down. Nevertheless, 2020 is our best year so far. Advertising crashed in April, but came back very quickly, and August was the best month of the year so far for the whole AVoD sector. In the AVoD universe, political advertising is very strong because OTT is cost effective. We expect to have a strong Q3 with political ads and Q4 with the Christmas season and the continuing growth of the economy.” Indeed, according to several printed reports, spending on political digital video ads in the U.S. is expected to reach $1.8 billion during this presidential-election cycle. “About advertising,” Fisher further explained, “on our own app we sell our own ads. With third- party platforms we have both inventory and revenue share. However, the majority is on rev- share basis. Our revenue splits are confidential however, platforms with publicly disclosed splits are typically 55 percent to content holders, 45 percent to platforms.” As for the number of commercial breaks, he said it depends on the platform. “With Pluto TV, for example, they have control over the ad breaks, but with The Roku Channel, we determine the ad breaks, in consultation with Roku. Generally, ad breaks in movies occur approximately every 10 minutes. On the TV side, ad breaks can occur every seven minutes,” Fisher concluded. The AVoDWorld is FAST Becoming Must-See TV Danny Fisher, CEO of FilmRise Local U.S. TV Stations Are Streaming FAST S ince September, U.S. viewers have been able to tune in to some 190 local TV stations on FAST. The new service, called VUit, offers live programs from the Atlanta-based Gray Television’s 145 local TV stations, Des Moines- basedMeredith’s17 localTVstations,Madison- based Morgan Murphy Media’s 14 stations, Spokane-based Cowles’s eight stations, and Cadillac-based Heritage Broadcasting’s seven stations. VUit follows last year’s launch of STIRR, Baltimore-based Sinclair Broadcast’s own AVoD service for its 190 local TV stations. Like in the case of VUit, when network pro- gramming runs on local OTA channels, STIRR carries an alternate schedule drawing from other STIRR channels. The VUit operation, which was set up by Marion-based Syncbak, has an ad rev-share basis as its business model. Syncbak’s OTT video service, available on six platforms, including Apple TV and Roku, allows TV stations groups to sell advertising using Syncbak’s proprietary live Dynamic Ad Insertion (DAI) technology, adSync. The DAI technology also allows advertisers to replace over-the-air ads in live and on-demand VUit streams, and use pre-roll video for live and VoD content. Other big TV station groups that have their own individual OTT advertising-supported platforms include the Irving-based Nexstar Media Group’s Nexstar Digital and Tysons- based Tegna’s Premion. Nexstar Digital carries Nexstar’s 196 local TV stations and utilizes Strata, an advertising platform from FreeWheel, a Comcast com- pany. With Strata, agencies can utilize, customize, and access the complete Nexstar Media Group digital advertising inventory. In addition, agencies can send orders electronically directly to Strata. Premion leverages Tegna’s 62 local TV stations and has a partnership with Gray Television (which has a minority stake in Tegna) where Gray resells Premion in its local television markets, and Tegna and Gray will each have the right to independently sell Premion in markets where they both operate a local television station. The sale of spot television advertising is not part of this agreement, and Gray and Tegna continue to sell spot advertising for their respective stations without any involvement from the other party. Tegna continues to oversee and control the Premion business. OTT: Over and Above