Single-IP Channels in FAST: A U.S. Status Check
Single-IP FAST channels, which are channels featuring nothing but episodes of a single show or franchise, have been a big trend in FAST for some time.
Across the industry conferences VIP+ has attended in Australia, France and Korea in 2023, single-IP channels have been much discussed during the events (and surely will be again during MIPCOM in October).
It’s easy to see why. Channels based around a single, recognizable, show or franchise tap into the brandfication of FAST but typically also into nostalgia, given many shows — owing to rights deals — that make up single-IP channels are older. It’s a formula that works, given that at Future of TV Advertising Sydney earlier this year, Samsung Ads Australia noted the “Baywatch” channel had been Samsung TV Plus’ strongest channel.
Just under one in five (19.3%) current FAST channels are single IP, with 287 channels (15.6%) based on English-language content and 67 (3.7%) in Spanish. This speaks to both the vast scale of FAST in the U.S. and that it’s growing as a FAST format given that in September 2022, there were 251 total single-IP channels (17.1%), with 181 (12.3%) in English.
Just 12 channels see distribution across 10 or more major FAST services, and among these, only three companies distribute two or more channels: Banijay Rights (2), Fremantle (2) and FilmRise (4).
ABC’s TV app has the greatest proportion of channels which are single IP, at 57%. This is due to the app offering only 23 total FAST channels, but as VIP+ has noted, Disney is conducting some interesting FAST experiments within this interface. There was a “Desperate Housewives” channel available during the summer, and current single-IP offerings include “Supernanny,” “General Hospital” and eight “National Geographic”-branded channels.
Outside of ABC, services that see a high proportion of their line-ups dedicated to single-IP content include Vix (40 channels, many of which are telenovelas, or 37%), Freevee (122 channels, or 34%), Peacock (23 channels, or 32%) and Pluto TV (108 channels, or 30%). Roku Channel offers 87 single-IP channels, which is actually the third-greatest total, but a proportion this is washed out due to its 466 total channels available.
Having a deep content vault within the family to draw upon certainly helps, which is why Pluto TV leads with channels exclusive only to them (examples being “Blue Bloods,” “I Love Lucy” and “Gunsmoke”), at 38. Freevee has the second largest number of exclusive single-IP channels (26), some of which are fed by in-house siblings Prime Video (“Bosch”) and MGM (“Teen Wolf”), as well as their own proprietary content (“Leverage: Redemption,” “Judy Justice”).
Single IP is also being used as a promotional tool for movies and new series. Peacock has proved to be adept at this in 2023, first launching a “FAST & Furious” channel in the summer and now doing the same for “The Assassins Hotel,” featuring nothing but “John Wick” movies to promote the new Peacock original “The Continental: From the World of John Wick.”
The number of single-IP channels can be expected to keep growing in the next year. Warner Bros. Discovery is yet to distribute any channel based on a single show, and other content library owners will continue to launch such channels as “Little House on the Prairie” or “Bravo Vault,” as they prove to be sticky with viewers.
