Introduction
BBC Studios owned broadcaster, UKTV, recently entered into the FAST market, launching four new channels on Pluto TV, Samsung TV Plus and Amazon Freevee in the UK at the end of August. UKTV has become one of the largest broadcast television companies in the UK, known best for their pay and free-to-air TV channels, including Dave, Drama, W and Yesterday. They reach over 26 million individuals monthly (BARB, Sep 2023) from all of their channels.
As the FAST market evolves we expect to see more local channel groups launching initiatives similar to UKTV. As a subsidiary of BBC Studios, who have launched FAST channels globally, they can benefit from that learning. However, FAST is a natural progression for many channel groups to follow and UKTV’s initiative will be one to watch. Local broadcasters in many global markets are looking closely at their proposition in their home market and UKTV are not alone in the UK. Recently we have had ITV launching their own FAST service on ITVX with numerous new FAST channels launched, with Paramount owned Channel Five having launched channels on Pluto and Samsung TV Plus in the UK.
The US market for FAST Channels exploded at pace, with new entrants and specialists driving the market in the early years. More recently though it has been the activity of existing stakeholders that has been important to follow. US Studios (who own key channels as well as having deep content libraries) have begun to embrace FAST to a greater level, but often in conjunction with their content and not their channel brands. Outside of the US we expect free-to-air broadcast TV businesses to take a much bigger role in how the market develops, moving in earlier and taking advantage of their position in both the viewing and advertising economy.
Content
Each of UKTV’s branded genre channels utilises their unscripted content library, available on their broadcast channels. The UKTV Play Full Throttle, Heroes and Uncovered channels all feature documentary and reality content from the Dave, Yesterday and W channels. UKTV Play Laughs is the only general entertainment channel, primarily focused on comedy programming such as panel shows and reality content from popular comedians on Dave.
UKTV Play
UKTV have extended the branding from the broadcaster’s on demand service UKTV Play and they are clearly focused on enhancing their overall streaming presence. Jonathan Newman, General Manager, Commercial at UKTV said in an official press release that their “ new FAST channels will be a valuable complement to the existing channel network and will help supercharge the UKTV Play streaming service by further extending its reach". Currently the UKTV Play service offers catch-up on all UKTV’s free-to-air channels and a growing selection of Boxsets. Currently however the FAST channels are not available on the actual UKTV service but we understand this is likely to follow, with the channels available on Pluto TV, Samsung TV Plus and Amazon Freevee.
Local Channels
As FAST continues to pick up speed outside the US, localisation will likely become the main battleground for major stakeholders. FAST platforms are realising the benefits and are increasingly partnering up with local players as they provide vast libraries of premium content, tailor made for local audiences.
Not only do local partners entice local audiences, they also bring in better local advertising opportunities. With advertisers usually having longstanding relationships with established local media companies, platforms will look to localisation to strategically boost and stabilise the economics in new growth markets.
Outside of ITVX, which is a local BVOD extension service, Freevee has the greatest proportion of their channel lineup, dedicating over 20% of their EPG to local channel owners. Of the other major platforms in the UK, Samsung TV Plus has the greatest volume of local channels with 21, while Pluto and LG contain 18 and 9, respectively. Going forward, we expect to see these numbers rise as platforms look to continue growing outside of the maturing US market and local content owners increasingly want in on the action.
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