Indie Platform Perspective: wedotv’s Chris Sharp

Chris Sharp, co-CEO of Video Solutions, operator of the wedotv AVOD platform, joined the FAST Festival to discuss FAST channel curation today.

Sharp, a veteran of the pay-TV business, discussed programming strategies, discovery and more in his keynote session with World Screen’s Mansha Daswani that you can watch here.

Sharp began working in the streaming space in 2018 when he partnered with Philipp Rotermund. “I had just come out of AMC [Networks International], Philipp was trying something around AVOD, which for me looked exciting. I love the idea of free. I love the idea of watching across all my devices. Along the way, FAST came along quite quickly. We thought we’d never do channels again, and then we started to work with Samsung. I always had the feeling there was a shortage of movies in markets, so our first channel was wedotv movies and everything has happened from there.”

Beginning in German-speaking Europe and the U.K., the company now has a presence across Europe and has expanded to LatAm and Asia, with an impending rollout in the Middle East. “There’s a demand for our style of curation. We never wanted to approach it from a playlist point of view. Historically, you had one feed that went across lots of countries. Now you’ve got multiple devices, multiple affiliates, but you still have to deliver that quality service to them, and that’s one of the bigger challenges.”

When it comes to content licensing, wedotv has assembled a stable of consistent partners as it continues to build its slate, frequently buying across multiple countries and looking to deliver mass audience reach. “This business is driven by advertising, so the more you [have titles] you know you can promote, you know you can get your affiliates to promote, then certainly audiences will come. We program like a traditional TV broadcaster.”

With its content suppliers, wedotv has taken a flexible approach to deals, working with rev-shares and traditional licensing fees. “If there’s content we love and are passionate about and think that fits into our curated mix, then we’ll find a way.”

That mix of channels is not exclusive to the wedotv service, with the company making the collection available to third-party services worldwide. “There’s a variety of revenue-sharing models to work with the affiliates.”

In terms of monetizing that portfolio of channels, wedotv sells programmatically and pitches directly to advertisers, Sharp said. “If someone comes to us with a particular product and wants a particular type of content, we’re able to put something on wedotv that complements that. This year, we’re on our fourth sponsorship campaign, where somebody takes over wedotv in a particular region. That’s interesting because you’re getting that closer relationship with the brand and media buyer. This direct relationship with the audience is going to be a big part of advertising as time moves on.”

Like everyone else in this space, wedotv is also harnessing data and analytics to finesse its offer. “We have a lot of data. Deciphering it is always interesting. We’re looking at viewing times, titles and geographically which titles are working. Who is downloading the app? There’s lots of different data, it’s just a matter of trying to extract what we need to help us make decisions.”