12.7.2024

How Are US Studios Expanding FAST Portfolios Internationally?

How Are US Studios Expanding FAST Portfolios Internationally?

Author

Jed Ayloff

role

Senior Analyst

Our previous FAST Tracker insight explored the aggressive expansion of FAST (Free Ad-Supported Streaming Television) portfolios by major US studios, each leveraging their extensive content libraries with distinct strategies. While US Studio activity has been a prominent driver of the FAST landscape recently, their rollout in other markets has been more measured.

Paramount maintains its global leadership position through Pluto TV's established presence in the Owned and Operated (O&O) space. However, there has also been a recent uptick in third party Studio activity beyond the US, with portfolio development occurring in both English and non-English speaking territories. Sony has made significant progress in recent months, establishing localised offerings throughout Europe and the Nordics.

Source: 3Vision FAST Tracker (May 2024)

Leveraging strategic partnerships with Samsung and LG, Sony has established the most extensive FAST presence in Europe among US Studios. NBCUniversal follows closely behind, though they currently prioritise the UK and German markets, favouring to launch on Freevee. This focus on these specific European markets aligns with their relative maturity and size compared to the others.

Warner Bros. exhibits the least activity in non-US territories to date. However, their placement of ten "broadFAST" channels on Samsung TV Plus in Italy suggests an intention to further explore and experiment in these markets with existing assets.

Lionsgate has primarily targeted other English-speaking territories, with established portfolios in the UK, Canada, and Australia. Their MovieSphere channel, widely available across English-speaking markets and Latin America, is a top performer globally. Nielsen's decision to include MovieSphere as the first FAST channel for tracking underscores the value and popularity of Studio-quality Movies in the FAST landscape.

Source: 3Vision FAST Tracker (July 2024). Platforms include Samsung TV Plus, LG Channels, Pluto TV, Rakuten TV, The Roku Channel, and Freevee

The latter half of 2023 saw the highest level of activity from the Studios, especially with NBCUniversal and Warner Bros. rapidly scaling their FAST portfolios and becoming leaders in the market. Sony emerges as the only major third party US Studio to launch more channels on major platforms in the first half of 2024 than they did in the second half of 2023, a result dictated by their new European channel strategy. Sony is now the first US Studio to actively focus on non-US territories, boasting 86 new feeds in the last 6 months. While they have also increased their domestic business in that time, it now only accounts for 17% of their new activity, down from around 30% in the latter half of 2023.

Meanwhile, Paramount continues to steadily scale their O&O business, filling over 480 new feeds worldwide across all platforms in the last year. The continued influx of Studio-quality FAST channels is another example of how the perception of FAST has changed throughout 2023. There is now an abundance of free premium content available from well-known brands in all major markets.

European territories show significant growth but the abundance of free TV initiatives and national broadcasters make it a more complicated market with powerful market forces that need to be navigated. While the uptick in the quality of FAST has largely been driven by US Studios, it is yet to be seen whether or not the economics will be sustainable enough to localise and schedule specific feeds in non-US markets on a large scale.

Source: 3Vision FAST Tracker (July 2024). Non-US Markets include UK, Germany, France, Italy , Spain, Norway, Sweden, Canada, Australia, Mexico, Brazil, and Argentina
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