By Mike Morrison, Deltatre

The momentum behind FAST is undeniable. A Horowitz Research study last month showed that two-thirds of U.S. content viewers are using FAST platforms in a typical month. Some 73% of FAST users in the survey liked the lean-back experience of linear streaming – something that was “sorely missed by consumers who cut the cord and just relied on on-demand streaming options." The survey confirms why FAST is one of the industry talking points for 2024, reinvigorating the linear experience to help content providers reach viewers in more places.

Whilst FAST does represent an undeniable opportunity for many content owners, is it truly enough to take advantage of the direct-to-consumer opportunity? Ahead of their trip to CES, I gathered a group of Deltatre's streaming experts together in our London hub to get their thoughts.

"FAST fills a gap which viewers have missed and are clearly happy to see back" commented Alex Drosin, Head of Worldwide Business Development at Deltatre. "As an industry, we've spent years talking about premium content being king, FAST is a strong reminder that making access easy and affordable is a path to success that you can't ignore."

So FAST has its benefits for the user. Does the content owner share in its success? That's where Alex is less convinced. "As a means to grow market share, FAST is massive but it's not the full picture. The real winners are those who can leverage FAST as an audience acquisition channel, then use it as a steppingstone to reap the rewards of the full potential of DTC."

This is where Kieran Bresnan, SVP Solution Engineering, gets involved, "if you take FAST as a key element of your distribution strategy, what you have is a substantial, engaged audience to go after through other delivery formats and mixed monetization strategies."

Pete Burns, SVP Strategic Partnerships, thinks that FAST is helping content owners solve problems they've had for a long time, "for years, content owners have been talking about having hundreds of thousands of hours of content. In the absence of a means to monetize that massive archive and ancillary content portfolios, that volume is a burden rather than an asset. This is another way FAST can help.”

FAST + On-Demand. A recipe for a tech nightmare?

Not necessarily, says Kieran, "Supporting the range of distribution channels available is by no means straight forward. You need a technology partner that is comfortable orchestrating content workflows and distribution across multiple delivery methods. They need to be comfortable with multiple commercialization models, managing metadata and entitlement at a per asset level so that you have the flexibility to build, scale and grow."

Challenges certainly seem to be plentiful. "Flexibility, control over UX and cost management are major considerations in FAST, but they're major considerations in every streaming, OTT or digital deployment. That's why Deltatre are so focused on reliable, modular platforms," comments Alex.

"Advertising can be tricky. If your premise is that you have hundreds of thousands of hours of content to layer advertising on. Have you got the ad inventory to match? If not, you end up in one of two situations: exhausting the same ad stock and irritating the user, or not placing an ad at all. Both of which present a challenge to ad fill rates."

The three look at each other before Pete smirks and chimes in, "That's before you're even talking about data. Name a conversation you've had over the last ten years where someone hasn't cited the importance of good data. At the moment, customers just aren't getting that back from the FAST tech providers."

As 2024 comes to a close, FAST rightly remains a major talking point and is undoubtedly a key part of streaming's future. But with D3 VOLT, we are ensuring that the all-conquering owned-and-operated, end-to-end streaming service, with apps, is an option for everyone, too. 

"Flexibility and focus are the keys for me” nods Kieran. "Everything we're doing with our own end-to-end streaming platform, D3 VOLT is focused on allowing flexibility to grow and add new features. Whether that's through our interactive video platform, front-end capabilities, or even through one of our partner integrations to deliver new advertising streams, analytics capability."

“D3 VOLT is a growth platform: it will scale as smaller streamers become larger ones without the need to re-platform. Tackling FAST is tough, integrating FAST with other models is even harder. But if you have the right foundation, and the right flexibility, there's a big win on the horizon."

If you'd like to speak to any of the team at CES, book a meeting here. If you're not able to attend but would still like to chat, please do get in touch.