Rakuten TV stopped asking advertisers to take its word for it
The shelves are full. Launching a FAST channel from scratch is a harder trade now.
“It’s been one of those newer parts of the industries where people were complaining that it was a black box. For an ecosystem that is based on advertising, I’m surprised that you are, to my knowledge, the first one to actually make that move.”
That's me, to Marcos Milanez.
FAST grew up fast. We got thrown numbers for years without ever agreeing on what counted as a view, a session or an active user. In May, Rakuten TV signed up to Barb, the same body that measures Netflix and ITVX in the UK.
The platform runs in 43 markets with around 170 owned and operated FAST channels. Marcos Milanez, Chief Content Officer at Rakuten TV, took me through why Barb was worth chasing and what it buys them that programmatic sales didn't.
Rakuten TV Enterprise is the other half of this story. The same platform now sells its own plumbing to everyone else: build the channel, schedule it, push it through the distribution network, sell the ads. Barbie and Pingu launched at the start of July, built, scheduled and monetised by Rakuten TV. Five years ago, Mattel could have done that alone and found a slot. I put it to Marcos that the shelves are full now and carriage is harder by the month.
Then there’s where he’d bet next, including one category they’ve already tried and mostly missed.
We’re on stage together for the 2nd edition of SME Live on 10 September in Amsterdam so consider this the warm-up.
WATCH the full conversation 👉🏻 here
That’s it for today but before you go:
🎤 Speaker Announcement
We’re thrilled to confirm TF1 and Netflix as headline speakers to discuss their recent partnership launch. In the morning, we will lead “AI in action” sessions where we stop talking about AI but start showing what it can do:
→ How to build a knowledge foundation in AI;
→ How to do subscription management with an AI agent;
→ How to use synthetic personas to test at scale.
The afternoon will continue with a diverse set of sessions on formats (with the record smashing program “The Traitors”), bundling, CTV, the state of European Public Service Media and a live episode of The Media Odyssey Podcast.
We’ve extended our early bird pricing until July 26th. At this link, grab 15% off on passes.