Welcome to FAST Times

2023 got everyone on the same page: FAST should be part of the me­dia mix whether you are a content provider, a broadcaster, or a distribution platform.

The State of Video Monetization 2024

What does the future of streaming monetization look like? This post-Peak TV media ecosystem is a brave new world, and being able to find the content you want, with the price you want to pay, will likely keep consumers on their toes for years to come.

The State of Live Sports Streaming 2024

Live content is led by sports, and fan appetite—much like bidding for rights—shows no sign of slowing down as the calendar turns to 2024.

Q&A: Adtaxi's Murry Woronoff Says Streaming TV Levels Have Surpassed 80% of U.S. Adults in 2024

A new report by Adtaxi, one of the nation's fastest-growing digital marketing agencies, has revealed that more Americans than ever are now defaulting to streaming as their primary viewing content source. Murry Woronoff, Agency Director - Marketing Research and Consumer Insights at Adtaxi, spoke with Streaming Media's Tyler Nesler about many specific aspects of the report and what the findings reveal about the current state of streaming as the industry continues to evolve rapidly.

Monetizing FAST and OTT with Metadata and User Data

Nothing makes recommendation engines—and every other means of profit-making leverage—go, go, go like data in its many varieties. Metadata in particular is the key to personalizing viewer experiences and optimizing content portfolios. AI plays an ever-greater role in enhancing the metadata quality and improving recommendations. As analysts focused on the M&E industry and insiders at major media companies playing critical strategic roles agree, data is also essential to understanding customer journeys and making informed decisions on how to reach and retain subscribers and, on the ad-supported side, deliver the right ads to audiences and the right audiences to brands.

State of Streaming Snapshot: Pinpointing Streaming’s Pricing Pain Points

Rising fundamental costs morph into rising platform costs for content owners and consumers

The 2023 Streaming Media Readers' Choice Awards

The readers have spoken! Here we present North America's top tech solutions of 2023, as chosen by the readers of Streaming Media.

Q&A: Caffeine CEO Ben Keighran Talks Fan-Focused Niche Sports Broadcasting

Caffeine is a well-funded, newer live broadcasting platform for fan-focused, niche content for interactive viewing. With the platform now surpassing 40 million users, most of its content consists of long tail and local sports programming. With $262 million in financing raised since 2016, Caffeine is emerging as a destination for "sports you can't find anywhere else." This Q&A with Caffeine CEO Ben Keighran explores Caffeine's unique approach to niche sports streaming and monetization model.

The 2023 Streaming Media 100: The Top 100 Companies in the Streaming Media Universe

The Streaming Media 100 is back—welcome once again to Streaming Media's annual list that foregrounds the industry's most innovative and influential technology suppliers, service providers, platforms, and media and content companies, as acclaimed by our editorial team. Some are large and established industry standard-bearers, while others are comparably small and relatively new arrivals that are just beginning to make a splash. All set themselves apart from the crowd with their innovative approach and their contribution to the expansion and maturation of the streaming media universe.

Generative AI and the Future of Media Tech

Incorporating generative AI into our workflows has the potential to impact almost everything in media technologies, and I'll examine several of the possibilities in this article.

Leading Independent Channels Join Forces to Form the Independent Streaming Alliance (ISA)

Ten of the leading independent streaming platforms, including Revry, Vevo, Tastemade, and Trusted Media Brands, recently joined forces to create the Independent Streaming Alliance (ISA) to promote the value of independent streaming channels, provide in-depth research of their audiences for the advertising industry, develop best practices for independent streaming promotion and development, and find ways to partner with key members of the CTV landscape.

Revry CPO LaShawn McGhee Talks Global AVOD, Analytics, Content Curation, and Inclusivity

What's it like being CPO at a streaming network that's carving out a unique position in the global media and entertainment universe and managing an expanding array of ad-supported channels and a high-visibility roster of brand partners? To find out what that role entails, what drives the tech stack that keeps such a network humming, and how Revry develops, sources, licenses, and curates its diverse content offerings, I spoke with LaShawn McGhee, Revry's CPO and one of the company's four co-founders.

Scripps Networks’ Senior Director of Product Yazmin Wickham Talks Viewer-Centered OTT UX Design

Recently I caught up with Scripps Networks Senior Director of Product Yazmin Wickham to get a better sense of the role a Director of Product plays in developing and managing UX at a diversified media company in the OTT and CTV universe. I learned how Scripps approaches the viewer experience, both in AVOD and SVOD models, and attempts to deliver as consistent an experience as possible across a wide array of platform, and the challenges and advantages of maintaining a unified (or nearly unified) text stack across the board.

Server-Side vs. Client-Side Ad Insertion: Which Side Are You On?

There are two broad categories of CTV ad insertion: Server-side (SSAI) and Content-side. We've had the SSAI vs. CSAI debate many times before, with SSAI often coming out on top in recent years, but the uptick in FAST viewing is changing the conversation for many stakeholders in the current media landscape. Effective ad delivery is far from a one-side-fits-all proposition these days.

Big Tech's Dirty Underbelly: Sharethrough's Frank Maguire Discusses Innovative New Approaches to Greener Streaming

Big Tech giants like Meta, Amazon, and Google have committed to achieving carbon neutrality by 2030. But how feasible is this goal, and where is the money spent towards it really going? Frank Maguire of Sharethrough discusses how Big Tech's digital ad deliveries contribute heavily to CO2 emissions and what these companies can do to lessen that impact and achieve their green commitments.

How to Launch a FAST Channel

Free ad-supported television (FAST) has been a rapidly rising element of the streaming industry since the beginning of the pandemic. This article covers the best practices for launching a FAST channel and how to handle the challenges faced, including insights from key industry leaders such as Jonathon Barbato of Best Ever Channels, DeShuna Spencer of kweliTV, and Paul Kontonis of Revry.

Streamticker: The Biggest Streaming Media Mergers & Acquisitions of 2022

A look at the streaming industry's most notable mergers and acquisitions of 2022, from WarnerBros-Discovery to Microsoft/Activision to Limelight/Edgecast to Dolby/Millicast to Telestream/Encoding.com and more

The State of OTT 2023

Netflix may have pioneered online pay TV on-demand with a model that every other SVOD chased. From April 2022, a pivot was required of every player, Netflix included.

The State of Streaming Monetization 2023

Streaming media business and monetization models expanded and diversified in 2022 and sent a clear message: Paid subscription models were a necessary gateway to widespread streaming adoption, but now ad-supported viewing has a chance to flourish.

Advertising, Bundling, and the Future of Premium Streaming

With the arrival of lower-priced ad tiers for premium streaming services, increasing aggregation and shape-shifting bundling options, ongoing changes to the streaming landscape are transforming consumer behaviour and adoption of pay TV and streaming services. But what do the numbers say about emerging market trends? How are platform providers interpreting evident shifts, and does that translate into user experience innovation? And is there really a "Great Rebundling" afoot, as so many pundits have claimed over the last 6 months?