Too Much TV: Your TV Talking Points For Friday, November 8th, 2024

FAST Channels and advertising. Plus, a bit more news about Penske Media Corporation

ere's everything you need to know about the world of television for Friday, November 8th, 2024:

FAST CHANNELS AND ADVERTISING
Content discovery is a challenge for any streaming platform. Getting the right show in front of the right set of eyes is a complex mess, given the number of viewing options, streaming services and viewing choices.

Free ad-supported TV channels (FAST) are one of the hottest things in the streaming industry right now, but I think it's fair to say that unless you work in the FAST industry, you probably don't understand how it works. And to be fair, FAST executives and others in the industry haven't gone out of their way to explain things.

I suspect most civilians just assume a studio slaps together some old shows, creates a streaming channel and attempts to distribute it as widely as possible. But while that might be technically part of the story, it doesn't cover all of the connected discussions about on-demand rights, ad-serving platforms, advertising load and the clarity of the programming.

Let's take just one challenge faced by FAST channels. The number of times a specific ad appears over the course of one show. Multiple surveys have found that consumers *hate* seeing the same ad repeated multiple times over the course of an hour-long show, And yet it happens with increasing frequency.

There are a lot of technical reasons for it, but one extremely dumbed down explanation is that the app that is streaming the FAST channel has an order for X number of viewers. And if the order is too large to match the available number of viewers, then the only way to fulfill the order is to cram multiple ads into a timeslot.

On the flipside, if a platform doesn't have advertising sold, they're forced to run "house" ads to fill the time. Which causes its own share of problems if there isn't a variety of ads to choose from.

All of this can lead to some strange viewing experiences. I've recently started watching Tastemade's food FAST channel late at night when I'm trying to unwind. While the quality of shows is uneven, they've recently licensed three newer Jamie Oliver shows to add to their collection of mostly British food shows. So the channel is a perfect lean-back experience for foodies.

But that viewing experience varies widely, depending on which platform you choose when are watching the channel. For instance, recently on the entertainment-centric vMVPD Philo, every commercial break contained multiple instances of the same insurance ads. In one four-minute break, there were seven ads for the same insurance company. After an hour, I couldn't take the repetition and bailed from Philo.

On the other end of the spectrum, The Roku Channel was also streaming the Tastemade channel, but that feed contained about 80% house ads for various programs also airing on Roku. Which isn't as bad as it sounds, because Roku appears to have an almost unlimited number of house ads, and I rarely saw one repeated.

One of my goals for 2025 is to interview more executives in the FAST space and also put together some overview explainers of how the FAST industry works. So if you work in that universe, I'd love to speak with you.

CALIF. AG ASKED TO RECONSIDER PENSKE-BOEHLY GOLDEN GLOBES DEAL
The Ankler's Richard Rushfield has been one of the journalists willing to take on the challenges of reporting on the business dealings of the Penske Media empire. The secretive privately-owned company controls not only most of the familiar Hollywood trades, but also a growing number of iconic entertainment-centric live events.

But as Rushfield reports in a new piece that just posted (subscription required, but you can read the entire article here), things at PMC are not always what they seem - or how they've been reported by the Penske-owned news outlets:

Contrary to Jay Penske’s trade publications’ own reporting, the deal to buy the Hollywood Foreign Press Association by his business partner Todd Boehly’s Eldridge Industries is not yet closed. I have learned that a group of former members of the HFPA have written the California Attorney General’s office asking for a review of the purchase and impending dissolution of the organization.

Among the signatories’ allegations, they describe an atmosphere in which the membership was pressured into signing a deal for the sale of their organization that few understood and fewer had even read.

While a lot of details of the deal haven't been made public, this tidbit in the story jumped out at me:

Of the approximately 90 members active in the HFPA at the time of the announcement, about 50 now serve as employees of Eldridge Industries. The signatories include some who are employees now, prompting their need for anonymity in the letter.

Well, that certainly sounds legit.

These live events are an increasingly important component of the PMC revenue stream and the Hollywood trades are becoming more of a vehicle to promote the live events and snag the majority of the industry's FYC advertising than thriving examples of entertainment journalism.

As an example, I've been told that at at one PMC-owned trade outlet, there has been a year-over-year double digit revenue drop, wit little indication the trend was slowing down. There's also little faith from employees that PMC corporate has a viable solution to the revenue problem, which is apparently ubiquitous across the company's titles. 

It's a common problem nearly every news organization is facing right now, with PMC working to use its live event and awards show holdings as a key component in  its revenue flywheel.

TWEET OF THE DAY

WHAT'S NEW TONIGHT AND THIS WEEKEND

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 8TH:
* Bank Under Siege (aka Asalto al Banco Central) Series Premiere (Netflix)
* Black Cab (Shudder)
* Cold Case Files: The Grim Sleeper (A&E)
* Every Minute Counts (Cada Minuto Cuenta) (Prime Video)
* Gold Rush Season Premiere (Discovery)
* Honest Renovations: A Holiday Home Makeover (The Roku Channel)
* Investigation Aliens Series Premiere (Netflix)
* Mr. Plankton (Netflix)
* The Cage Series Premiere (Netflix)
* The Fiery Priest (Hulu)
* Trivia At St. Nick's (Hallmark)
* Umjolo: The Gone Girl (Netflix)
* Vijay 69 (Netflix)

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 9TH:
* Arcane (Netflix)
* Christmas Under The Northern Lights (Great American Family)
* First Time Buyer's Club Season Premiere (OWN)
* Invincible Fight Girl Series Premiere (Adult Swim)
* Santa Tell Me (Hallmark)
* Searching For A Serial Killer: The Regina Smith Story (Lifetime)
* 27th Annual Family Film and TV Awards (CBS)

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 10TH:
* Coupled Up For Christmas (Great American Family)
* 'Tis The Season To Be Irish (Hallmark)
* Yellowstone Season Five B Premiere (Paramount)

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 11TH:
* Spellbound (Netflix)
* The American Soldier (History)
* Uprising (Netflix)

SEE YOU ON MONDAY!