DUBAI: Late last year, Warner Bros. Discovery extended its partnership with Evision, the media and entertainment arm of e&.
The extended agreement provides users access to seven new channels including Fatafeat, Discovery Channel, TLC, HGTV, Food Network, Investigation Discovery, and Discovery Family.
It also includes two new free ad-supported streaming TV, or FAST, channels on Evision’s streaming platform, STARZ ON: CNN Fast, which is already available, and an upcoming kids’ FAST channel launching later in 2025.
“This partnership highlights a shared commitment to delivering diverse, high-quality content to audiences in the region,” Humphrey Black, vice-president of Distribution, CNN International Commercial, told Arab News.
CNN Fast features short-form videos covering international stories across major news events, business, entertainment, sport, tech, travel and the environment. It first launched in Europe in 2023, followed by Canada and New Zealand.
These countries are “where the main FAST channel platforms have been building audiences,” and now “these platforms are starting to get traction in MENA (Middle East and North Africa), and the growth of FAST channels will naturally follow,” Black said.
“With a younger population in the region who really engage with video content, it’s a natural fit, and this succinct format will keep viewers informed and engaged,” he added.
The second FAST channel is dedicated to kids’ content and will feature classics from Warner Bros. Discovery’s content library.
Explaining the reason behind a FAST channel dedicated to kids, Black said: “There is a high demand for children’s content across traditional TV channels, streaming platforms, as well as YouTube, where kids’ channels consistently dominate viewership globally.
“With that in mind, we want to reach and entertain kids through our most loved characters.”
Moreover, he added, cross-platform viewing continues to grow, meaning that viewers consume and access content across multiple devices.
Children in the MENA region own at least one device allowing Warner Bros. Discovery to “meet our young audiences wherever they are and engage with them across the various platforms and devices,” he added.
In recent years, streaming platforms that rose to popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic have increased their subscription rates. In a full circle moment, some have even introduced ads on lower-priced subscription tiers reminiscent of the days of traditional TV.
This, along with the sheer number of platforms users might need to subscribe to, has given rise to FAST channels.
Black explained: “The first streamers focused on subscribers for their business models, but now we’re seeing ad-supported services coming back into favor as this offers customers the option to lower or replace subscription fees in return for consuming advertising, thus making the content available to an even wider group of potential customers.”
Between 2022 and 2023, in the US alone, the number of FAST channels increased by 81 percent, according to a whitepaper by Whip Media.
In the MENA region, several broadcasters introduced FAST channels last year including Indian media conglomerate Viacom18’s DesiPlay TV and DAZN Group’s Dazn Combat, both of which are available on STARZ ON.
Although FAST platforms generally tend to feature lifestyle or entertainment content, they are “increasingly featuring news channels in their propositions as these are seeing strong uptake amongst audiences,” said Black.
Warner Bros. Discovery’s launch of the two FAST channels is part of its strategy to continue digitizing its content and reaching people on the platforms they use most.
In addition to reporting news, CNN’s “brand promise” is to make its content “available on a device or platform of your choosing,” Black said.
He stressed the importance of “trusted, verifiable and accurate reporting” at a time of decreased regulation and increased instances of deep-fakes, AI-generated content and misinformation.
Black added: “A focus on video and innovative products in compelling formats and experiences is central to CNN’s digital transformation and reflects the way we are adapting production, distribution and monetization models in line with the changing nature of consumers’ media habits and consumption of news.”
