
FAST Channels Part Two: Why They Matter for Sports Entities Samsung, ATP Media, and Telstra Broadcast Services On Why FAST Should Be Part of Your Content Strategy By SVG Staff
Tuesday, December 5, 2023 - 11:50 am
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
Below is part two of our report on the rise of FAST (free ad-supported streaming). It has been undeniable in the past two years, and the transcript below dives into everything from how to launch a FAST channel, what makes for a successful one, and how it can help sports entities, both big and small, expand their reach and business. It is based on a panel discussion at Sportel Monaco that was moderated by SVG Co-Executive Director Ken Kerschbaumer, featured three key entities either involved in or seriously investigating a FAST sports service: Samsung (represented by Chris Gregory, strategic content partner, lead, Samsung TV Plus); Telstra Broadcast Services (Anna Lockwood, head of EMEA/Americas, Telstra Broadcast Services); and ATP Media (Alan Bruno, head of broadcast development, ATP Media). Click here to read Part 1.
FAST panel at Sportel: (from left) ATP Media's Alan Bruno, Samsung's Chris Gregory, Telstra Broadcast Services' Anna Lockwood, and moderator SVG's Ken Kerschbaumer
Launching a FAST service with live sports can require some controls around where it is seen, and also which sponsors are seen. Chris, can you discuss how Samsung TV handles those situations?
Gregory: FIFA Plus is a great example where we launched it in 20 countries out of our 24. If any rights holder comes to us, we do put blocks in and we appreciate that sponsors have multimillion billion dollar deals, so we'll block out any competitors. My Samsung ads team aren't always happy with that, but they understand that potentially the deals that are done at this kind of level are at this point much higher than FAST. So, we would block any competitor ads and we'd actually get introductions to the major sponsors for them so they can get their campaigns to viewers at the most relevant time and tournaments.
What do we see as the opportunity for smaller organizations and how do they get involved?
Gregory: For the smaller federations it's a great opportunity for distribution because they might not have a broadcast relationship in all of the countries, we have our service in. What we are looking for are FAST channels that resonate with a local viewer. For example, field hockey would probably work a lot better in the Netherlands as opposed to Germany. So, we review the channel, and we have managers in each country who will say, This will work, this won't work. So, for smaller federations we do more local-level deals.
Bruno: The in-between is a larger federation with perhaps smaller level tournaments that maybe don't have a TV or broadcast home. FAST could be an interesting solution for that as well.
Lockwood: And everyone has dark markets. There are a lot of conversations around where there is a rights gap, where there is a market that's dark, and where there are fans that are underserved. I think there's a big play in FAST for everyone from tier one down to niche sports or emerging sports.
Let's dive into what makes for a good FAST channel. How much content should they look to have on a weekly basis for example? How much do you have to refresh? What's that challenge?
Gregory: When I started at Samsung TV Plus four years ago, we were asking for 50 hours and 10% refresh a month. Now we're looking at 150 to 200 hours from launch plus a 25% refresh because the viewers get more sophisticated. Once they haven't got the number of hours their channel starts underperforming and that's when they start losing viewership and they start losing monetization as well. The ones with the higher hours and the higher refresh are the partners we really want on the platform.
Can you also do day parts? This feels very much like the cable landscape where at 3:00 AM the quality drops down a little bit. But if a channel's distributed globally, how do you lean into that so that dayparts line up with time zone?
Gregory: We have a compliance team that looks into all of that. Luckily that's not my job, but we try and get all partners to schedule their channels accordingly with day parts. With movie channels, for example, in the UK all 15-and-up rated films are scheduled after 9 pm. We know from the data that we see that the people who are watching are normally kids early in the morning, late at night just before they go to bed, and then the parents after that as well. We try and create a very family friendly environment because we know that it's a family environment that TV Plus is being watched by.
Lockwood: And that's also something that for us is interesting because we get asked a lot more about normalization, localization, compliance, regulations. When we first started this, those conversations were not that common but now, with the changing regulatory landscape, that's become much more critical.
Chris, what about exclusivity, having a channel that is only on Samsung TV?
Gregory: Exclusivity is something we're really pushing. DAZN FAST Plus is exclusive to Samsung TV Plus and I think it's a way of selling the service and potentially selling TVs and devices in retail. You can form stronger partnerships because it's like you are trusted with someone's brand, their rights. And you get more granular into the schedule, and you can tweak it a bit more. Exclusivity differentiates us between a very competitive marketplace as well, whether that's FAST platforms or other OEMs.
Bruno: Chris and the Samsung TV Plus team are in a position to offer a compelling exclusivity option just because of their market share. So it may be that we [at ATP Media] look at it as if we were to do
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
01/06/2026
January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026
Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...
02/05/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
01/05/2026
January 5 2026, 18:30 (PST) NBCUniversal's Peacock to Be First Streamer to ...
01/04/2026
January 4 2026, 18:00 (PST) DOLBY AND DOUYIN EMPOWER THE NEXT GENERATON OF CREATORS WITH DOLBY VISION
Douyin Users Can Now Create And Share Videos With Stun...
24/03/2026
Grass Valley has strengthened its long-standing relationship with ImSoPROD, the TV production entity of the FDJ United, with the deployment of Grass Valley LDX ...
24/03/2026
At the 2026 NAB Show in Las Vegas, Utah Scientific will spotlight its expanding portfolio of hybrid SDI/IP routing, conversion, control, and signal management s...
24/03/2026
Fresh off its global reveal at ISE 2026 in Barcelona, the new V410 live 4K encoder/decoder from Miri Technologies Inc. will make its North American debut at the...
24/03/2026
Cinegy GmbH, premier provider of software-defined television technology, will show how its solutions answer the real challenges facing content creators and broa...
24/03/2026
Canberra-based radio and online broadcast network ArtSound FM (https://artsound.fm/) has invested in DHD audio mixing consoles for two new studios at its headqu...
24/03/2026
IBC today announced the nine projects selected for its 2026 Accelerator Media Innovation Programme, bringing together organisations from across broadcast, strea...
24/03/2026
Mediaproxy, the global standard for software-based IP compliance monitoring and multiviewing solutions, will showcase the next generation of its industry-leadin...
24/03/2026
Underscoring its global reputation as one of Canada's most renowned colleges for television production, the C gep de Jonqui re public college in Qu bec has ...
24/03/2026
Leading video software provider Synamedia today announced the launch of the industry's first edge watermarking solution that enables faster disruption of pi...
24/03/2026
Experience Commerce, a leading full-service digital marketing agency and part of the Cheil SWA Group, has secured the annual social media mandate for Fiat Payme...
24/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
24/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
24/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
24/03/2026
Intinor introduces enhanced SRT monitoring, HDR transport and NDI Advanced suppo...
24/03/2026
Miri V410 Live 4K Encoder/Decoder to Make North American Debut at 2026 NAB Show
Brie Clayton March 23, 2026
0 Comments
Powerful new solution for strea...
24/03/2026
All three presenters, Maura, D ith and Sinead, celebrate as afternoon chat show filmed in Cork hits milestone.
Ireland's longest running afternoon show, t...
24/03/2026
Artificial intelligence has rapidly emerged as one of the most critical workload...
24/03/2026
March 24 2026, 04:00 (PDT) Dolby Named to Fast Company's Annual List of the...
23/03/2026
The Professional Fighters League (PFL) has renewed its multi-year partnership wi...
23/03/2026
The Snow League has named Google Cloud as its Official Cloud and AI Partner. The...
23/03/2026
Chyron has appointed Eric Wolff as Director of Venues Sales, North America. Wolff previously served as Director of Broadcast Operations & Media Production for T...
23/03/2026
Chicago Sports Network (CHSN) and Weigel Broadcasting's WCIU (The U, ch. 26.1) will simulcast 10 Chicago White Sox games during the 2026 season, the compani...
23/03/2026
Cosm has appointed Jon Werbeck as Vice President, Head of Sponsorships. He will report to Corey Breton, Head of Venues, and will focus on corporate sponsorship ...
23/03/2026
CP Communications has announced a partnership with Mark Roberts Motion Control (...
23/03/2026
NAB Show 2026, taking place April 18-22 (exhibits April 19-22) at the Las Vegas ...
23/03/2026
Bay FC and free streaming platform Victory have announced a partnership through...
23/03/2026
Gemini AI models will surface hidden context around pitches, matchups, rare stat...
23/03/2026
Behind The Mic provides a roundup of recent news regarding on-air talent, includ...
23/03/2026
Growing from broadcast engineer to strategic planner, this Ithaca College grad h...
23/03/2026
16 Science-Focused Nonfiction Projects Selected for Funding
LOS ANGELES, CA, March 23, 2026 - The nonprofit Sundance Institute and Sandbox Films announced toda...
23/03/2026
It's been 20 years since Miley Cyrus introduced the world to Hannah Montana,...
23/03/2026
Made entirely from real natural recordings
Aimed at sound designers and editors working in film, TV and game audio, the latest release from BOOM Library com...
23/03/2026
Transcribe sheets, tabs or MIDI from audio files
Klang.io have announced the launch of a new AI-powered software tool that's capable of detecting multip...
23/03/2026
An auxiliary target has been affixed to the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage f...
23/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
23/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
23/03/2026
Pro8mm, the Super 8 experts, provided cameras, Super 8 movie film, and scanning services for Bruno Mars' Risk It All music video. The debut single from Br...
23/03/2026
Matthews, introduces their first aluminum grid clamp collection, engineered for the rigging needs of film, television and live production. Combining light weigh...
23/03/2026
Monday 23 March 2026
Hacks, the multi-Emmy -winning Sky Exclusive comedy, retur...
23/03/2026
Back to All News
Too Hot to Handle: Italy Reignites for a Second Season With th...
23/03/2026
Autonomous agents mark a new inflection point in AI. Systems are no longer limited to generating responses or reasoning through tasks. They can take action: Age...
23/03/2026
RT is sad today to learn of the death of legendary RT Sport broadcaster Michael Lyster, who died this morning aged 71 years.
Kevin Bakhurst, Director-General...
23/03/2026
RT Documentary On One has scooped its first ever dedicated music award. At the 2026 Icelandic Music Awards, composer lfur Eldj rn won Release of the Year in t...
23/03/2026
Inside Sport, Liveline, Morning Ireland and 2FM DRIVE will all be in Prague to bring fans to the heart of the action
Every Moment, Every GenerationRT | FIFA W...
22/03/2026
Free updates now available
VSL have just released some free updates that add some existing features to a selection of libraries in their expansive Synchron ...