Are you a YouTuber? Move to Free Ad-Supported Streaming TV now

YouTube is a great place to begin your content journey but switching to Free Ad Supported Streaming TV (FAST) becomes indispensable as you look to scale your business and aim for higher content ROI.

YouTube: The most common weapon of choice

YouTube has a great reputation among content creators, gaming industry and major studios too. Here are a couple of reasons.

• Great content discoverability, thanks to Google’s array of sophisticated algorithms
• An opportunity to build audiences based on content relevance

These are great and totally explain YouTube’s massive popularity, but are these enough? The answer is–no.

Planning to make the leap? Ask yourself these questions first

• Is it time to expand or migrate the business to a channel on my own platform?
• Should I transition to other broadcast platforms like Free Ad-Supported Streaming TV (FAST)?
• Timing is everything, plus a thorough knowledge of my own business – what is my vision?
• What are my ultimate financial goals?

Most companies tend to enter a steady state once they have built a good community of subscribers on YouTube. What next? All the crazy fans of your content are already following you and you have reached a state of saturation. How can you discover new audiences and further monetize your content?

FAST is synonymous with success

Three critical reasons that make FAST your next ‘best foot forward’ are:

• Higher ad revenues: Yes, FAST tends to have a lower ad load than traditional TV. This is what makes it attractive to viewers who are tired of traditional linear advertising. On an average, FAST services have an hourly ad load of between 8 to 10 minutes, while traditional TV has 10 to 16 minutes per hour and keeps growing further.
  
  However, with rich metadata solutions and new ad formats, you can deliver well targeted and relevant ads in a seamless and unintrusive manner, increasing opportunities to grow your ad revenues, without losing loyal viewers to ad fatigue.
  
  Ad spend on Connected TV that powers FAST is estimated to reach $32.6 billion in 2026.
  
  
• Greater reach: The FAST universe is expanding with over 50 platforms delivering a wide variety of linear channels to over 200 million households across the world. By delivering your linear channels to these platforms, you can achieve manifold reach and sustained viewership, without worrying too much about discoverability and marketing.
  
  
• Take charge of your own destiny: FAST ecosystems provide a huge opportunity for people to create independent brands that can stand on their own. Since FAST is still a work in progress, opportunities are presenting themselves all the time. While they can be a moving target to chase, with the right technology partner, they aren’t impossible to achieve.
  
  All in all, FAST helps develop and nurture a much better advertising relationship for both content owners and viewers. This makes it the choice of the hour.

All set to move to Free Ad-Supported Streaming TV?

Once you have chosen FAST as your next destination. here’s your checklist:

• Start by comparing your content’s genre and subgenre with what is available in the FAST ecosystem
• Check whether your genre is over- or under-represented
• Across big players like Pluto TV, Xumo, LG, Roku, etc., where is the genre saturation and what is lacking?

If you are the only game in town, unique in what you’re presenting, it could mean two things.

• One – you can corner the market with your own niche.
• Two – there isn’t much demand for that kind of content – at least not yet.

If you happen to be a part of a cluttered genre with many similar offerings, it’s surely going to be a tough ride.

However, be assured that today free ad supported platforms including Pluto TV, XUMO, STIRR, The Roku Channel, Samsung TV Plus, Plex and more are vying for the best content from across the world to attract more eyeballs and advertisers. FAST has become home to an exciting range of genres from news, documentaries, movies, music, sports, food and kids shows to even personal brand based content (Bob Ross channel, Elvis Presley channel).

Read Amagi's Global FAST Industry Report for deeper insights into the top performing genres across the world. News is the star genre but what are the other top favorites across regions? Find out..

Choosing the right technology partner is critical

Channel creation, distribution and monetization are all things sure to be affected by the technology partner you choose. Here are some things you must keep in mind:

• Find someone who is already reaching your potential audience
• Ensure that you aren’t hit by a lot of other competing channels
• Ensure great content discoverability
• A change of schedule can have a large impact on the audience you have. Therefore, take data-driven decisions
• You also need to use a content planner to be able to make it more effective
• Choose a tech partner that focuses on metadata as it holds the power to reawaken dormant content and give audiences a new way of engagement.

Content is critical

If you have the right technology partner, the mechanics of the transition to FAST can be relatively pain-free. It could just involve the migration of your content to cloud storage, along with the all-important enhancement of metadata.

While transitioning from YouTube to FAST, you could face a number of challenges.

• What do you do with your YouTube audience?
• Do you try to bring them with you?
• Do you just let them go?

The answers again depend on your ultimate goals.

Get the Amagi advantage

Simplify your YouTube to FAST journey with Amagi. We have solid experience in enabling established brands such as Tastemade to make the big move from YouTube to FAST and thrive in the new space.

" The industry is seeing a big surge in streaming television viewership and advertising. Our partnership with Amagi has enabled us to distribute content to leading video service platforms, and generate revenues through programmatic advertising. Amagi makes it simple and easy for us to reach viewers across platforms of their choice," said Jeremy Strauss, Head of Business Development at Tastemade.

To know more, reach us at cloudandme@amagi.com