The event opened its doors with a series of panels focused on the opportunities and challenges that the FAST channels present for the region, leaving for the closing the screening of the series Playa Soledad, from Sony Pictures Television.
*with production by Agustín Aguiar and Ana Paula Carreira from Cancún, Mexico
MipCancun 2023 has been underway since this Tuesday, November 14, on a first day marked by conferences focused on the explosion of FAST channels. The event, which will run until Thursday the 17th at the Moon Palace Resort Hotel in the Mexican city, closed with a screening of Playa Soledad, the Sony Pictures Television drama series.
The day began with the opening of the market by María Perez-Belliere, director of MipCancun, who welcomed the attendees and inaugurated the theme of the first day: the FAST & Global: Americas Summit, a day of conferences that focused on the explosion of FAST channels and programming offers in Latin America, the Hispanic US and Canada.
In the first panel “Demystifying FAST”, presented by Rosario Buil, Chief Costumer Officer of BB Media, some of the most relevant trends regarding the consumption of FAST channels were broken down.
“We see that there is greater adoption by users in searching for content on FAST channels. As for pay TV subscribers who use FAST as a means of entertainment, cord-keepers are the ones who are able to access FAST the most. The disclaimer is that they do it occasionally, that’s the challenge, getting them to consume regularly,” said the executive.
“In terms of demand, we see who today consumes FAST the most: generation Z and millennials, between 16 and 34 years old, interested in sports and gaming,” she added.
Today, Buil explained, there are more than 1,100 FAST channels in Latin America, where the leader is Pluto TV with 270 channels, followed by Plex with 269 and DistroTV with 212.
In the second panel, “FAST Monetization: Challenges & Strategies for Success”, Adriana Frías, VP of Business Growth at Ottera, spoke about the challenges that FAST channels face in terms of monetization.
“84% of Mexicans agree to see ads in their content, 73% of Argentines and 78% of Brazilians, which tells us that this will help the monetization and growth of FAST channels,” said the executive.
However, the executive clarified, it is important to overcome the challenges that come with advertising on FAST channels, these being advertising fatigue, attracting buyers, SSP management and render rates.
The third panel of the day, “Curated & Branded FAST Channels: Reaching Audiences Everywhere,” brought together Eddy Arias of Paramount, Felipe Osorio of Canela Media, and Fernando Muñiz of TV Azteca, to discuss how to optimize FAST channel offerings to better reach audiences.
“With Pluto, at first, people thought we were crazy when we launched, but as the years went by, we saw growth. Today Pluto is in more than 35 markets globally, with more than 80 million active users monthly. We have seen everything during these years,” shared Arias.
“We started a long time ago with the offer of FAST channels, but we were not focused on it,” added Muñiz. “We took pay TV channels and converted them into FAST. For some time now we have been doing something interesting, because we gave special treatment to the FAST channels.”
“In addition, we have content curation: each specific segment, with a specific audience. We started with four channels, today we have nine. Starting next year we will have 12 or 13, offering everything. One of the strong bets for next year is our new sports channel, that will be pan-regional. It will be a very attractive channel with a differential offer.”
The extensive conference program continued with other panels, such as “Channel Opportunities on the Samsung Platform” and “Disruptive and Emerging Digital Initiatives.”
The closing of the first day of the event was carried out by Sony Pictures Television, which, before the MipCancun Pre-Opening Drinks, offered a screening of Playa Soledad at the Cancún Theater, presented by Carlos Quintanilla, VP of Original Content at SPT, accompanied by Martin Gandarillas, Head of Marketing at Claro Video and executive producer of the series.
Playa Soledad is the story of Helen Castro, a young woman who works in the real estate developer of her “almost” father-in-law in Madrid. To achieve her long-awaited promotion, Helen accepts the task of traveling to Mexico to buy the land in Playa Soledad, among which are those of her father Luis Castro, whom she has not seen for 20 years since she left. from Mexico.
The second day of the event will give way to the traditional content and co-production meetings, in addition to having a new cycle of conferences, which will open at 07:45 local time, with the screening of Land of Desire, by Globo.
