View TV built and funds Kapang, a CTV & OTT platform available in the UK and North America, delivering to various mobile, tablet, Smart TV, and PCs. Kapang allows View TV to restructure consumer models and channel efficiencies.
View TV currently delivers millions of hours of Live Streaming TV annually via its dedicated private CDN with a dynamically integrated SSAI bidding platform called BroadcastCDN.
View TV announces that 100% of earned ad revenue is paid to all FAST Channels, providing a FAST First sustainable content ecosystem for Broadcasters using carrier-grade streaming video delivery.
Jamie Branson – CEO VIEW TV
View TV has been tirelessly working on solving FAST to evolve into the cord-cutting solution that audiences, advertisers, content creators, and channel owners need and presumed it already was.
FAST stands for Free Ad-supported Streaming TV. The service delivers streaming linear TV channels or Video on Demand content with an ad-funded business model. This model allows the audience to watch without committing to contracted subscription payments.
FAST extends traditional TV; the channels are streamed over internet-connected devices such as CTV and mobile phones. FAST provides accurate audience data and live measurable earnings to deliver high-yield addressable profits with live performance data.
View TV FAST as a Service provides revenue forecasting for content owners and channel operators using existing data from other digital and analogue sources.
“For Connected TV and FAST Channels to grow, they need to generate enough revenue to be profitable yet have the confidence to reinvest in fresh content to retain and grow audiences.
Without a sustainable revenue model, channels cannot create & acquire the rights for the content and therefore fails to retain loyal audiences. Traditionally proven broadcast models work on >60% of Gross Revenue spent on content creation and licensing deals. Early adopting technology providers currently give back 10-40% of gross revenues to channels. This poor performance has resulted in a few channels needing reinvention to produce FAST First content to grow. Moth-balled or archive content is the norm on most FAST Channel rollouts across Smart TV & OTT Platforms; these are short-term wins and only suitable for niche audiences, with these assumptions supported by industry data.
As FAST was predicted to be a cord-cutting solution for cable subscribers, the business model must accommodate existing broadcasters and their current content spending model to allow them to adopt FAST as the future of their business whilst requiring little change.
Without traditional broadcasters being able to adopt FAST, it will never replace existing satellite and cable solutions, and FAST will never become a mainstream service; therefore, FAST will fail to mature into a genuine broadcast replacement and is the reason we have so many O&O apps on our devices today.
We understand that not all channels can provide a sole ad-funded solution. Still, dynamic subscription top-ups or ad-buyouts are already available for premium services and live sports within the Kapang service.
JAMIE BRANSON – CEO VIEW TV
View TV’s owners, View TV Group, were originally content producers and linear channel creators who struggled to justify early FAST models for their channels. These channels are via the View TV content portfolio and providers, with downstream costs and revenue models to satisfy.
Although the team tried integrating several different suppliers into their FAST Channel solution, none of the integrated solutions could provide sustainability, and platforms were proposing the same unfair revenue share. This lack of integration for content creation or broadcast-grade curated linear channel projects made the initial FAST model unsustainable for broadcast migraters or premium content owners.
View TV developed FAST2.0, a broadcast approach to the immature early adopter Gold-rush FAST market. FAST2.0 provides content creators, content aggregators and traditional broadcaster transformation participants with a fair and sustainable business model content ecosystem. This model mirrors established traditional channel broadcasting workflows, allowing digital transformation for existing successful broadcast and content businesses to adopt as their future confidently.
The origin of the broadcast industry is not broken and does not need to change; audiences demand that broadcast TV embraces digital efficiencies, convenience and quality that aligns with their new Youtube and Netflix-based lives.
Jamie Branson, the founder of View TV, has studied the fairness surrounding FAST business models and discovered that in too many cases, content owners were receiving less than 20% of gross earnings, some as low as 12%, despite having more than half of the ecosystem costs, zero control and the highest investment risk. Being an early adopting FAST channel owner was a gamble, which, when successful, is copied, not applauded.
A typically successful National Niche FAST Channel with unique content would have to provide 20-30 hours of excellent refresh content per month which can be a mix of archived, sourced, or in-house productions. View TV found that over 80% of all FAST channels across all platforms broadcast dated or mothballed broadcast content. This level of the content does not appeal to mass audiences. Cord-cutting audiences demand what they have been used to whilst benefiting from digital efficiencies, not a cheapened reinvented service. Audiences demand a simulcast TV experience, not badly curated cheap technology delivery. They watch in their droves when the service and content are excellent, as demonstrated by Amazon and YouTube.
FAST Channel viewers are the same traditional subscribers to cable and satellite TV platforms looking to migrate to FAST models after several decades of hard-wired services. Viewers expect their cord-cutting will result in a reduction in cost and a fantastic broadcast experience. They assume like Youtube, FAST will cater for more choice and niche services than they have been used to but also provide trusted traditional broadcast formats such as:
- EPG TIMINGS – A TV Channel should have most of the channel programming on the top or bottom of the hour, providing EPG times of 11:00 am or 12:30 pm, not back-to-back VOD,
- CHANNEL BRANDING – A TV channel is proud of its brand, and providing onscreen and transition branding gives audiences confidence in the broadcasters,
- AD BREAK USER EXPERIENCE – A TV channel should have ad breaks that are 100% filled and not show “View TV will be right back” for minutes at a time when ads fail to be sold or delivered,
- SUBTLE AD BREA INSERTION – Advertising breaks are spaced every 10-12 minutes, with the ad break at an appropriate place within the programming, e.g., scene change or topic interval.
Most FAST Channels on Smart TV Platforms today are scheduled VoD to reduce costs surrounding operational complexity and human curation to avoid most of the traditional costs. Cheapening TV services at the expense of the viewer experience and premium advertiser engagement is a short-term gain. These shortcuts have seen viewers attempting to restore their cord-cutting exorcism in the short term whilst the industry matures.
Due to the broad FAST user experience being scientifically identified as the leading cause of viewer engagement and advertising yield, View TV has made a bold move to remove non-compliant technical SaaS models such as FASTChannels.tv, SoFAST, Wurl, MUXip, Ottera, Zype & Evrideo to ensure the channels, the audiences and the advertisers are satisfied.
View TV promotes efficient traditional services such as Amagi, Cinegy, Wiseplay and its Cloudie TV solution, where they offer free migration support & subsidised service fees to get channels GPU powered to provide the desired broadcast-grade audience experience.
“It is key that FAST Channels realise that the audience and advertisers only have greater expectations as they transition from traditional cable and satellite services. Both parties do not see the need for cheap services and believe public internet should only provide greater efficiency, quality, and choice. Viewers do not believe digital efficiencies are an excuse to applaud corner-cutting….”
Jamie Branson – CEO VIEW TV
View TV announced that it would merely charge for SaaS-based technical delivery costs based on channel audience numbers and monetisation successes. View TV passes 100% of ad revenues generated to the channels, providing more than 65% gross profit, five times higher than wrong solutions. This structure enables traditional broadcaster transformation, content & venture funding opportunities and premium programming JV discussions.
The View TV team has spoken to over 100 FAST Channels who raised their concerns with their existing FAST Channel businesses. These concerns ranged from losing 65% in ad revenue shares, technical suppliers selling for enormous value from channel assets, to being charged thousands of pounds for platform distribution that only provided value to the platforms with no commitment or investment.
The latest View TV offering solves the top lucky seven problems that FAST Channel Broadcasters expressed in their feedback:
HOW CAN I STOP SHARING MORE THAN HALF OF MY REVENUES?
View TV will not take a revenue share in any ad transactions; View TV charges a fixed ad transaction fee for delivering performance, and your revenue stream FAST First content investment becomes a viable opportunity. The channel still holds several risks, but they are directly within their control without running a private app. 1. How do I get people to watch and 2. will they like the channel and keep watching?
I DON’T HAVE AN AD SALES TEAM. HOW DO I GET 100% MANAGED AD SALES
View TV automatically link your channel to the proper advertising agencies to maximise your ad revenue for revenue-yielding and predictable earnings; with a 100% paid advertising fill rate with full advertising break pattern compliance, each channel is guaranteed not to pay any operational charges higher than their revenues,
Each channel should generate $0.25 – $1.00/hour watched, with the niche media channels developing more than 2m hours per year, with an average entertainment channel exceeding 2m hours per month.
WHY DO I HAVE TO WAIT 3 MONTHS TO LAUNCH A CHANNEL?
FAST Channels are told of 2–3-month onboarding queues for platforms whilst still having to cover their fixed technical fees and no promise ever to be accepted.
View TV will add any legal & viable channel primarily to their platform, Kapang UK & Kapang USA, within seven days to get channels broadcasting FAST. No more waiting months to go live to audiences and no need to convince us your channel deserves a platform EPG; you are paying, it is your stage, and Kapang have more than 1500 available,
HOW CAN I GET AN AFFORDABLE TV PLAYOUT SOLUTION THAT GIVES TRUE TV?
Although there are some excellent playout solutions, View TV produced Cloudie TV as a full-featured solution for all company sizes. Cloudie TV can provide broadcast-grade Cloud Playout with full GPU graphics that “looks like real TV” to audiences. View TV is providing this service at a subsidised price with complimentary migration support to get you broadcasting FAST.
HOW DO I DISTRIBUTE MY CHANNEL ACROSS PLATFORMS WITHOUT RISKY FEES?
View TV can re-distribute your channel to any platform without further fixed fees whilst filling unsold ad pods globally. To avoid costs and missed revenues View TV fully manage this service to enforce FAST2.0. We oversee the advertising and revenues across all platforms to protect the channels and report in a dashboard.
AUDIENCE & REVENUE REPORTING TOOLS
View TV will provide a live reporting dashboard to visually view your ad transactions and earnings via the ad agencies and platforms, all in one place. This level of reporting can educate the channel/content owners to develop the content viewers want and schedule existing content that performs better at a particular time.
HOW CAN I GET PAID EARNINGS FASTER TO AVOID CASHFLOW ISSUES?
Many ad agencies and platforms provide 60-day payments from the end of a trading month. View TV calculates advertising earnings weekly via the live dashboard across all SSPs and has a FASTPAY option that pays all invoices within 14 days as cashflow pre-payments for channels using a standard invoice financing structure.
View TV understands that revenue share models and dream-selling technology businesses have drained the budgets of some FAST Channel businesses. View TV appreciates that some companies are exhausted and not financially strong enough to change. To these unfortunate channels, View TV can offer two options as stock investments:
- VIEW TV ADOPTION – View TV will take over the content and brand of the channel and operate the channel either under the proven brand or monetise the content under one of its established or partner brands as a content deal rather than a channel deal.
- VIEW TV STUDIOS – View TV FAST Network funding, mentoring and support to aid in the transition to a sustainable FAST Model via its FAST Track Venture funding campaign. View TV offers to invest up to $250k in any established channel business wanting to adopt the sensible FAST2.0 model.
The future of FAST is inspiring and can be fantastic for all levels of business. As a rule, the more effort and spending that goes in, the more revenue generated, where businesses of all sizes can compete in the same space. Youtube has demonstrated that small businesses can succeed on Youtube, and FAST provides the same opportunity in the regulated broadcast.
For any Content aggregator/creator looking to Broadcast FAST Channels or an existing FAST channel owner looking to change to a sustainable business model, email jamie.branson@viewtvgroup.com or check out the Kapang how to launch a FAST Channel page – Launch a FAST Channel.
