Programming vs. Promotion Decisions in CTV Content Monetization Strategy
When it comes to curating and monetizing CTV content, do programming and promotion decisions go hand in hand or does one necessarily drive the other? Head of Fubo Studios Pamela Duckworth offers a look inside Fubo’s approach to testing and promotion, from pop-up FAST channels to tentpole events and evergreen content and breakthrough sports like bare-knuckle boxing in this discussion with Integration Therapy’s Rebecca Avery at Streaming Media Connect 2026.
Finding the Right Strategic Balance
Avery kicks off the discussion by posing the question directly: “What is the importance of programming decisions versus promotion decisions? And how do you balance those on different types of content?”
Duckworth brings up pop-up FAST channels as an example as a way of testing the popularity of content (and the value of promoting it on a limited-term basis) before committing to something more permanent.
“Having the ability to just create any FAST channel we want," she says, "we can actually do popup channels on our networks to test. We'll test it on the programming decision, and see how well it does, but we'll also do fresh promos. Let's say if there's an event like a Wiffleball Championship. Not many people know that there's a Wiffleball Championship. So we'll try to lean into humor a little bit and put together these kind of fun, fast-paced promos, which in turn we get to our partner platforms so that everyone knows it's coming up. And then we test whether this programming is doing well. And if we see any pickup, then we'll go full-on and help this league market their brand and then bring it up and get as many eyeballs as we can for it."
So it's not necessarily one leading or driving the other in content strategy; "I kind of do it in parallel when it comes to programming decisions and promotions."
Testing, Finding, and Promoting the Right Content Balance
Pushing further into content strategy territory for more insight into Fubo’s approach, Avery asks, “How do you balance between all of the different types of content that you have? Obviously, sports is a big winner for Fubo. How do you continue to lean in on sports for monetization and then still give visibility to your other content?”
"It's all complementary, especially on Fubo Sports," Duckworth replies. "For instance, our sports documentaries do extremely well."
Turning to her fellow panelist Jon Giegengack of Hub Entertainment Research, Duckworth says, "Jon, you'll laugh at this because I'm sure you have data on this. I could air the Tom Brady documentary all day long and it will do extremely well. We heavy that up during the football season. You tease it up. And then we have one on Travis Kelce. We have a bunch of stuff like that. So we program around tentpole events like pro football and college football. And now we're going to be doing a big event around March Madness because we have an exclusive show with Seth Davis called The Hoops IQ Show. So we're going to have fun with that. We're going to lean into his bracket and maybe we'll even come up with a game like 'play against Seth' or something, and we'll just put little promos around that."
Going back to the testing strategy she discussed earlier, Duckworth explains, "We are lucky enough that we can test and find out if something's sticky. A perfect example of that is Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship (BKFC). They literally don't wear things on their hands; they hit with bare knuckles. We started testing that in 2022. First, I was told, "Pam, it's too violent. People are not going to watch this. There's too much blood involved. There's too much everything." And I was like, let's just see if they like it or not. And BKFC is a small outfit. There are six people working with this company. But we ended up getting traction and they became really, really good partners for us."
Four years later, Duckworth says, Fubo is doing all of BKFC's marketing. "We have grown the brand. It's international now, and it's in the top 10 every single month of programming for us," she says. "We also created their FAST channel and we manage it in English and Spanish. We dub all of the fights in Spanish because we also have Fubo Latino, and it's working so well that we are an investor in the company now. So we're trying to look at this as a 360 to monetize. And that just happened to be a home run for us."
"You've talked about pop-up channels, games, different types of branding in your promotion, leaning into humor for Wiffleball, creating channels with partners and eventually evolving even into an investor," recaps Avery. "That must generate an enormous amount of data."
Duckworth nods. “Jon’s probably taking notes right now!” she quips.
“I did,” Jon conirms.
Duckworth laughs. “I saw you!”
Related Articles
Streaming Media Connect February 2026 was all about the business and tech of ad-supported streaming and featured exclusive keynote fireside chats with Michelle Auguste of the NBA, Michelle Munson of Eluvio, and Kimmy Li of GAMELOOP and a slate of expert panels panels packed with speakers from YouTube, Disney, DAZN, Fubo, Fremantle, FloSports, Fuse, LG, Philo, Bitmovin, CacheFly, Tavant, and more. Check out a playlist with Streaming Media Connect sessions on Streaming Media's YouTube channel to catch the sessions you missed and revel in the ones you want to relive through the magic of VOD.
26 Feb 2026
On Thursday, February 26, Rebecca Avery, owner and principal of Integration Therapy, will moderate the Streaming Media Connect panel "Best Content Bets: Programming Decisions That Maximize Fill, Yield, & Scale." Curating the right content mix is the foundation of scalable streaming channel monetization. This session breaks down the art and science of building a content library that draws and engages viewers and shows how data-driven programming decisions impact ad fill rates and cultivate sustainable growth across platforms.
05 Feb 2026
Conversation about monetization is so nuanced that after a decade of writing on this topic, I am still looking for meaning where there may be little to find. Essentially, what I've come to understand is that advertising is like the stock market: Certain aspects of advertising deals are not transparent now and may never become fully transparent. What is clear, according to research from Statista, is that 64% of revenue growth in the U.S. in OTT is coming from advertising.
28 Mar 2025
FuboTV, the leading sports-first live TV streaming platform, announced the availability of four new interactive CTV ad formats to further drive audience ad engagement. The personalized and dynamic experiences, including transactional and gamified ad formats, are part of Fubo's ongoing commitment to ad innovation and overall strategy to connect, interact with and convert premium audiences.
06 Jan 2025