The Unsung Hero of FAST: EPGs

I’m putting the “Real Streaming Wars” series on pause. Writing about Google last week really solidified my position that it’s their race to lose.

I now want to turn my focus to the rise of free ad-supported television (FAST). The next three editions of Streaming in Public will focus on the following from an insider’s point of view.

1. The Unsung Hero of FAST: EPGs

2. The Current FAST Competitive Landscape

3. How FAST becomes the new TV

FAST’s Most Unique Differentiator

The streaming video market has traditionally been split between ad-supported video-on-demand (AVOD) apps such as YouTube and subscription-based (SVOD) apps like Netflix. However, a new category has emerged, free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST). FAST services offer a mix of TV and digital programming, including live events, old shows, and movies. The term FAST was first coined by TVREV’s Alan Wolk in 2019.

FAST Services brought the Electronic Programming Guide (EPG) to streaming. EPGs are FAST Service’s most distinct feature. They were first introduced on Cable Television in 1981 by United Video Satellite Group (USNG). USNG launched a cable channel known simply as The Electronic Program Guide. This channel’s sole purpose was to slowly scroll through what was on at that time in chronological order. Channel…by painstaking…channel.

Or was it painful? I might lose some of you at this point, but in researching EPGs, I went down a glorious 80’s rabbit hole. You must watch the first 30 seconds of this EPG channel recording in 1987. It features a sultry MC’s voice talking directly to the audience, letting you know the weather, and just genuinely loving his job. He then throws to the perfect song 30 seconds in.

Did time move 10,000 times slower then? It seems really nice.

And just when I thought things couldn’t get any better, I noticed the video was uploaded by a mullet-rocking Mark Davis who seems to just collect old TV hardware, throw a great 80’s track on, and record himself geeking out. Legend.

I remember impatiently watching the TV Guide channel as a kid. I seemed to always turn it on just when it scrolled past my favorite channel. I then had to wait another lifetime before it would come back to it.

This is going to be a controversial statement, but as antiquated as folks think the EPG is. I believe it's the single most important factor that makes FAST Services a contender to overtake linear television and cable. Just as VOD services tapped into our desire to watch what we want when we want, FAST Services tap into our desire to watch lean-back content for free with little effort. Just good ole’ TV.

My First FAST EPG Experience

In 2015, I started building the first FAST channel of my career four years before the industry had a name for it. This was at Time Inc., the once-iconic magazine publisher, where I was tasked with leading the effort to build an OTT Network for People Magazine. We had a lot of ambitious plans and decided to produce all of the content for the network in-house. The main problem with that strategy…no one knew People Magazine produced videos.

So we devised a plan. We started working on what we called “The Linear Wheel.” We figured since no one knew our content, we would simply launch them directly into playback when they opened the app. Our modified version of an EPG was a playlist that would appear on the bottom of the screen as a tray that shows the user what's currently playing, what's up next, and how they can navigate to our on-demand catalog. Here's a pre-launch version of that user experience from my archive of product launches.

When we launched PeopleTV in 2016 we were named one of Apple TV’s apps of the year and a “must add” channel on Roku. Launching users directly into a linear playback experience paid off. 90% of users engaged with the linear experience vs. navigating to the on-demand catalog.

Don't Disrespect the EPG

Every streaming service has tried to kill the EPG. The most famous example was when Hulu launched Live TV along with a major redesign. Hulu’s redesign was internally called "Project Bowie," and the design team's goal was to "give the status quo the middle finger."

The main idea driving the redesign was the old TV model is broken. Streaming needs to be less like TV and more like digital. Hulu's lead designer on the project said "We’re gonna abstract out the kind of archaic channel infrastructure of TV because it doesn’t exist in the digital world.”

Well, despite early beta testers complaining that the experience is confusing, Hulu rolled the redesign out anyway. And it flopped. The Hulu team spent months rolling back the new features to a more recognizable interface.

Hulu’s CEO at the time Randy Freer said: “Look, we probably overestimated the willingness or underestimated the ability for people to jump from one side of the Grand Canyon to the other...we didn’t give consumers a path to walk with us and get there. You aren’t alone in your desire to have an EPG.” Hulu finally added an EPG to its streaming service in 2019. Hulu's EPG was immediately well-received by viewers. A study by Nielsen found that 70% of Hulu viewers use its EPG to find content.

FAST Historical Timeline

The concept of ad-supported television has been around for many decades, but the term "FAST" specifically refers to the rise of free, ad-supported streaming channels in the connected TV (CTV) and streaming space. The staple feature that sets FAST apart from other streaming products is the EPG. Here's a brief history:

• The first Television Ad Airs: Advertising has been a fundamental part of the business model for traditional TV since the beginning. The world's first television commercial aired on July 1, 1941, during a game between the Brooklyn Dodgers and the Philadelphia Phillies. The ad was for Bulova Watches and cost a whopping $9 to air. It was also only 10 seconds long. Sounds like it worked and capitalism did its thing. Raising both prices and ad duration toot suite. Free, ad-supported content was here to stay.

• The first FAST Service Launches: Pluto TV was founded in 2013 and became one of the pioneers of FAST channels. Viacom bought Pluto in 2019 for $340 million. Viacom's plans for Pluto TV were originally just to use it as a marketing tool for its linear brands, distribute its digital content such as CBSN, and upsell its SVOD services including Paramount+ and Showtime. Pluto is now a core part of the combined ViacomCBS, reaching 80 million monthly active users and Pluto has been at the forefront of experimenting with EPG features.

• Niche Channels Thrive: One major innovation that has been great to see in FAST is the proliferation of niche content. This is in large part due to the EPG enabling services to feature relatively unknown content. And there’s no better example than the Bob Ross Channel. FAST channels devoted to Bob Ross have 15 million monthly active users across over 25 FAST Services.

• Samsung Leverages Owning the Glass: Samsung TV Plus launched in 2015 as the first FAST service built by a TV manufacturer. Samsung made Samsung TV Plus the default app in 2019. This meant that when a customer unboxes a new Samsung and turns it on, they saw the Samsung TV Plus app by default. You don’t know how many times I have had friends and family who know I work in the industry ask me if somehow they were getting “free cable” when they first experienced this. Now that’s the kind of marketing gimmick you want for your new service. Expect more SmartTV manufacturers to make their FAST Service the default when users turn their TV on. Samsung said users streamed over 3 billion hours of content in 2022 and they now have over 18 million monthly active users.

• FAST Channel Explosion: There are now thousands of FAST channels with FAST Services averaging 250 Channels per platform. Google TV is arguably innovating the most when it comes to the user experience in streaming, and it's all centered around the EPG. Google's new live experience makes it easier for users to browse and discover its massive lineup of over 800 channels. Not only personalizing the EPG based on your previous viewing history but also organizing channels by genre.

Why EPGs Matter to FAST Channel Growth

Studies have repeatedly shown that people are more likely to choose something that is familiar to them, even if it is not the best option. This is known as the "familiarity bias." In the case of FAST services, the familiarity of EPGs makes them more likely to be adopted by viewers.

EPGs have been around for so long, navigating them has now become second nature for most people. When PWC asked about what makes a streaming service attractive, the top response at 55% was "ease of use." Furthermore, in a recent survey from Tivo, people said they are about 50-50 on whether they prefer FAST channels vs. navigating on-demand libraries. By 2020, 40% of viewers watched FAST channels. COVID lockdowns helped lead to a boom in viewership, and now three years later 57% of the U.S. population has tried at least one FAST service.

The growth projections around FAST revenue are inconsistent across media outlets. TVREV’s Alan Wolk highlights the most bullish case. They predict FAST will become larger than both linear and cable combined by 2026.

Even if these projections prove to be too aggressive, the fact remains that FAST is on an accelerated growth path, while linear and cable are in irreversible decline. TV and CTV combined ad spend (including FAST) is predicted to grow to nearly $100 billion dollars by 2027, so there’s a lot of money at stake, and we are just in the early innings of FAST disrupting TV.

As for the EPG's role in all of this. Babe Ruth told Benny "The Jet" Rodriguez in the 1993 hit Sandlot "Heroes get remembered, but legends never die." Long live the EPG!

Until next time,

🤙 Moffie