FAST Festival Preview

“FAST” was the buzzword of 2023 as SVOD woes and inflation angst set in. Free, laid-back linear channel viewing was the comfort food consumers were clamoring for—and the additional revenue boost distributors sought amid the content business’s great reset. Twelve months since we staged our inaugural FAST Festival, FAST is still proving to be a lucrative business for IP holders. Still, the sector is challenged by the same issues that are plaguing other areas of media: a crunch on ad revenues, a proliferation of outlets and the discoverability conundrum.

Convening our second edition of the FAST Festival, we’re diving deep into those issues and more as we spotlight where the FAST business is today and where it’s going. If you haven’t registered, there’s still time to do so here. Only those registered will receive access to our Exclusive White Paper featuring key intel from the event in a compact, easy-to-digest format.

The virtual festival kicks off on Tuesday, July 23, with a superpanel on how distributors of scale are approaching the FAST segment, delivering insights from BBC Studios’ Beth Anderson, ITV Studios’ Graham Haigh and All3Media International’s Amanda Stevens. Next, we have a keynote conversation with Jenn Batty, director of content partnerships for Europe and the Middle East at Samsung TV Plus, followed by a fireside chat with Roku Media’s head of content, David Eilenberg. Day one wraps with a conversation with Chase Brisbin, Lionsgate’s recently promoted executive VP of international SVOD sales and head of global channels.

The second day of the FAST Festival will offer insights into what independent platforms are looking for in content partnerships with Plex’s Scott Olechowski, wedotv’s Philipp Rotermund and Free TV Networks’ Thanasis Tsiris. Lightning International’s James Ross will then offer up his expertise on curating FAST channels and rolling them out in Asia and across the globe. At noon EDT, you can see David Salmon, Tubi’s executive VP and managing director for international, discuss the platform’s recent U.K. launch. We close out the Wednesday agenda with Chris McGurk, the chairman and CEO of Cineverse, on how the company is driving gains with its assortment of streaming services, FAST channels and new search and discoverability tools.

We have two heavy-hitter programmer keynotes on Thursday, July 25: Katrina Kowalski, senior VP of international content programming and acquisitions at Pluto TV, at 9 a.m. EDT, and then Marcos Milanez, the head of content at Rakuten TV, at noon EDT. Rounding out the festivities for the day are two genre spotlights, one on kids’ FAST channels with WildBrain’s Lara Ilie, 9 Story Media Group’s Elianne Friend and pocket.watch’s Corinna Fisher and the second on the market for movies with VA Media’s Mark Ashbridge, Candlelight Media Group’s Scott Wiscombe and Nicely Entertainment’s Scott Kirkpatrick.