Pluto TV: We are considered the pioneer FAST service in the market

The growth of FAST (‘free, ad-supported television) is a direct result of traditional TV’s decline, said Rick Maynard, VP of Distribution Alliances for Backlight Streaming. “Ultimately it is the consumer who decides, but FAST could be an option to replace traditional TV,” he pointed out in the panel “Re-growing linear TV for the new era: The FAST opportunity” at Fierce Video’s StreamTV Growth Summit.

The panel also included Evan Bregman, General Manager of Streaming, Tastemade; Meg Choi, VP of Growth Marketing, Pluto TV, and Rob Christensen, SVP of Global Sales and Distribution, Vevo. The moderator was Bevin Fletcher, editor of Fierce Video.

For Choi, personalization and recommendations are key. She recalled that Pluto TV has been considered the pioneer FAST service in the market. “A key differentiator for us is that we have more than 40 programmers curating content for our audience in order to create the live and on-demand experiences we have today.” She added that the platform is very easy to use. “Our content acquisitions team has a good mix of data and curation.” They work in collaboration with their programming partners to release the content when and where it is most appropriate.

While Vevo increases its offer of music content, the priority is to seek full distribution. Christensen said that one of the current shortcomings of FAST and the streaming environment is unified measurements, “we’re not there yet.” He indicated that they have been more successful in obtaining audience performance data from their partners. However, he believes that the FAST environment is a world “where you can program and advertise intelligently.”

Bregman agreed with Christensen. “The level of content performance data varies from platform to platform. Data matters to us, we analyze performance data in real-time, and we make daily decisions based on data. It is a very fragmented market. There is no single measurement currency. We don’t have the equivalent of Nielsen ratings.”

“The best experience for the streaming consumer would be one that offers no barriers in their transition from AVOD to SVOD. FAST lives in a much larger ecosystem and is more consumer-focused,” Maynard said.