FAST is “underestimated rather than overhyped” says LG exec

Despite FAST’s popularisation and it becoming a rapidly growing market, according to LG Ad Solutions exec, Helen Keelan, the TV viewing model has been “underestimated rather than overhyped.”

Speaking at the Connected TV Summit yesterday, the senior sales director of EMEA at LG Ad Solutions challenged the notion that FAST has become overhyped and instead the model has introduced “nice opportunties for diversifying your audience”.

“There is a clearly an appetite” for FAST, she added, citing the company’s research that seven out of 10 people prefer to stream content for free with ads.

However, Kasia Jablonska, director of digital and on-demand for EMEA at BBC Studios, pointed out when it comes to tackling the European market, FAST’s growth across the region has been more gradual.

“It’s a slowish fast,” she said. “The start has been quite slow, but the market is maturing.”

“When we look at Europe, one size definitely doesn’t fit all, so we definitely need to look market by market,” Jablonska added.

The BBC Studios exec explained BVOD is the “bigger game changer” in the Europe, with European broadcasters and free-to-channels holding greater influence in the region than compared to the US. She said to see growth in FAST across Europe it was important to form partnerships with the local operators that “command the majority of the eyeballs”.

Jablonska said, “the game is actually at scale and having this combined  inventory and then figure out what’s your premium content, what’s your long tail, then developing those skills and abilities to service your content, work with the platform, but also through the platform directly with advertisers to help improve their programmatic strategies.”

Scott Olechowski, Chief Product Officer & Co-Founder of Plex, said the main focus for the FAST operator to enhance the user experience is discovery.

“Discovery is one of the biggest challenges when you have this much content running 24 7. The content’s getting better and better its now about how do I connect with it?” said Olechowski.

In an agreement with Plex chief, Blair Harrison CEO of Frequency said more work needs to be done in personalising the discovery mechanism across FAST platforms.

“To do things in a truly personalised way, and to do it as a content rights owner, does not currently work because of how the distribution fabric is designed and architected today” he said.