Albie Hecht on pocket.watch’s FAST Journey

Albie Hecht, chief content officer at pocket.watch, spoke at the FAST Festival today about how the company has extended its creator economy franchise-building flywheel to the FAST space.

Hecht discussed how Ryan and Friends and pocket.watch Game-On have found traction in the crowded kids’ space and weighed in on the process of reformatting digital-native content for a linear lean-back viewing experience in his keynote, which you can watch here.

“Pocket.watch wants to be everywhere kids are,” Hecht said on what drove the FAST expansion. “From a real estate perspective, we jumped in prospecting very early in the space. It’s proved to be a tremendous driver for us in terms of the awareness it’s given us in the larger space, especially as connected TVs come into play. The data that we get from it, and the connection with parents. In the FAST space, we reach parents as well as kids because of the linear nature of it and the co-viewing nature of it.”

The channels are curated from pocket.watch’s extensive YouTube footprint. “We have 59 creators, 1.3 billion subscribers, 10 billion views a month, 30,000 hours of programming. That is our base to build these channels. We have original programming, which we get through a unique syndicated model, which are creator originals, and mishmashes, which are half-hour television shows that are curated from this vast library of YouTube content. They’re curated in a way that’s themed and has original content added to it so it feels and looks like a television show, which is perfect for linear. It’s also parent-friendly because it’s curated in a way that meets what we considered in the old days broadcast standards. Ryan and Friends is all about deep Ryan content and friends that are adjacent to that, like Diana and Toys and Colors. The pocket.watch channel, now called Game-On, is focused on gamers and Roblox content.”

Hecht showcased the process by which digital content is reformatted, tapping into the company’s suite of proprietary tools.

“We have a great curation process where we sift through a library and use some recently formulated AI tools to help us do that—our Channelyzer—to come up with themes. We package them into half-hour programs. We add original content, which are the curation of interstitial and branded pieces that go between it. It looks and feels like a hit television show.”

Hecht continued, “These creators have won what we like to call the Hunger Games of YouTube. We have found that popularity does translate into off-YouTube platforms like FAST.”

He also stressed the collaborative nature of pocket.watch’s relationship with its network of creators. “They are the experts. We are taking their creation and helping them understand how it can translate off YouTube, but at the core of it, the authenticity of what they do has to be preserved. When we look at curating, we show them the clips, we show them the animation or the pieces we want to put in between. We collaborate with them. What would you like to see? And then, certainly, particularly when we’re doing originals with them, there’s a very deep development process. We’re in the franchise business. We want to help them create their franchises and their brands. We look at what that potential is when we look at who to work with for originals. We get data about who’s performing. We talk about their sensibility as we start the development process. Our team that curates all these videos already has a deep understanding of what their brand is. We take that all in and come out with ideas and run them by them. Every step we’re testing with our creators in terms of the development of a concept and into scripting and everything else. In the end, they look at everything and have reasonable consultation rights to look at the finished product as well. This is a true collaboration. It’s been a key to our success. We have tremendous respect for these creators who have been successful because they’re true and authentic. And we want to keep that every step of the way.”

Hecht then discussed how the FAST channels help power pocket.watch’s business lines. “The FAST channels help us to extend the awareness of the creator and brand. The data we get back helps our gaming, consumer products and our promise to kids and parents about being everywhere. There’s an advantage for us to look at FAST channels as a means of alternative distribution. We’re able to create original programming which by itself a FAST channel can’t necessarily support, but with our SVOD Ryan and Friends Plus we support original programming that then gets syndicated to the FAST channels so now we’ve got franchise building in the SVOD and into the FAST channels and then on into syndication beyond FAST channels to our linear and streaming partners.”

Hecht also highlighted pocket.watch’s ad-sales capabilities. “We’re one of the few companies that have the right to sell YouTube Kids advertising. Our ad sales business is taking off.”

He also touted the library of originals the company has built with its creators. “We’ve done over 40 original series for creators. The ability to build a library of original creator content that we are syndicating now, that trend is just going to keep accelerating because of our ability to monetize it on our SVOD channel and then through our FAST channels. The future’s bright.”