This week’s Future of TV Briefing looks at why TV networks are content with not yet making meaningful pushes into original programming for their channels on free, ad-supported streaming TV services.
FAST and slow
The key hits:
- Channels on free, ad-supported streaming TV services continue to be largely full of programming recycled from elsewhere, like traditional TV.
- TV networks have mostly refrained from investing in original programming for their FAST channels because their library programming is considered new for many FAST viewers.
- But the promotional upside could pull more FAST channel operators to invest in original programming.
Free, ad-supported streaming TV services bear many resemblances with traditional pay-TV. Two, in particular, stand out. The FAST services carry 24/7 streaming channels that echo linear TV networks, and those channels air a lot of re-runs.
While FAST services like Amazon’s IMDb TV and Roku’s The Roku Channel (aff) continue to load up on original shows, the original programming push is slower going for media companies operating 24/7 streaming channels on these FAST services. The pace is beginning to pick up, though. However, for FAST channel operators to really invest in original programming — particularly those that also own traditional TV networks — they will need to see that the revenue upside will offset the content costs and exceed the effectively free money they’re already making on the FAST services.
“I’ve got shows on my network or movies that we’ve created that are years old. We might have produced them anywhere from three to eight years ago, and they don’t get a lot of presence on our linear network currently because we’re trying to be fresh and satisfy our advertisers,” said one TV network executive.
That programming may not suffice on the linear network, but it’s more than fine on FAST services. “We’re getting tons of views, and it’s not even new content. So we’re making money…