World of Wonder and Blue Ant Media just launched Drag Race Universe, a free, ad-supported streamer, available on Vizio WatchFree+. Celebrating drag races and their culture, the platform will also carry “Canada’s Drag Race” and “Canada’s Drag Race: Canada vs. the World.” Drag queens compete to determine who has the goods to be the next star.

The stakes of the series’ success are high for HBO Max, which just raised its US subscription fee from $14.99 to $15.99 for an ad-free monthly package.

HBO “clearly remains the gold standard for original series, but its parent company (Warner Bros. Discovery) is at a crossroads in terms of how much it’s willing to spend on projects,” said John Cassillo, an analyst with TVREV.

Blue Ant Media and World of Wonder have partnered to launch Drag Race Universe, a free, ad-sported streaming TV (FAST) channel dedicated to global versions of the Drag Race franchise.

The new channel will launch in the US through Vizio’s free streaming service WatchFree+, with additional platforms set to be added in the coming months.

Blockchain helps prevent digital assets from being duplicated, allowing them to be shared and distributed while preserving ownership through its transparent ledger system. It also helps the industry maintain data integrity, ensuring that creators receive proper royalties for original work.

Madhive, blockchain-based digital marketing, and data solution tracks, stores, and generates reports on customer activity, giving advertisers insight into the consumers they should be targeting whilst keeping their data private.

“YouTube is the only place where viewers can find everything they want, and we’re always looking for new ways to provide viewers a central destination to more easily find, watch, and share the content that matters most to them," YouTube said in a statement since shared with other media outlets. "We are currently running a small experiment that allows viewers to watch free ad-supported linear channels alongside the wide variety of content we offer on the platform.”

Producing more than $7 billion in revenue the third quarter alone, YouTube is the biggest ad-supported video company in the world, and its entry into the FAST market would be a big deal.

One challenge for advertising on quickly growing free ad-supported streaming TV(FAST) services, as detailed in a recent report by analysts at TVREV, is a lack of transparency. That includes the ability (or lack thereof) to know which programs ads are running against. Another challenge is buying across the vast array of available platforms, which have varying curated channels.

The combined trio of playout, SSAI and a FAST SSP is where KA sees Amagi bringing more value than what comes with any of the three elements separately.

Some of the included drag programming includes Canada’s Drag Race, Drag Race Philippines, RuPauls’s Drag Race UK, Drag Race France and many others. The channel will be free and ad-supported, according to the World of Wonder blog. It’s available now.

“Watch now on Watch Free Plus, VIZIO’s exclusive free streaming service. Just click on the WatchFree+ logo on your VIZIO Smart TV home screen and go to the Drag Race Universe channel (channel 325),” the production company said.

The service also expanded its reach to users of VIZIO SmartCast TVs when it became available on VIZIO’s free ad-supported TV (FAST) and video-on-demand service VIZIO Watchfree+. Canela users now have even more ways to watch quality Spanish-language kids’ programming, thanks to the new Canela Kids mobile app available now.

“FAST services today are where cable was 40 years ago,” observes TVREV founder and principal analyst Alan Wolk. FASTs have more available inventory and are “a great reach vehicle,” he says. “The most desirable and hardest-to-reach consumers are spending most of their time on streaming, and the FASTs will be how brands can best reach them.”

VIZIO Holding is not owned by hedge funds. Looking at our data, we can see that the largest shareholder is the CEO William Wang with 40% of shares outstanding. In comparison, the second and third largest shareholders hold about 7.4% and 5.8% of the stock.

HBO "clearly remains the gold standard for original series, but its parent company (Warner Bros. Discovery) is at a crossroads in terms of how much it's willing to spend on projects," said John Cassillo, an analyst with TVREV.

Songtradr, the music licensing and management platform, has been parsing data on brands’ use of music in commercials across 2022, and one of the top takeaways won’t come as a surprise: Apple is really good at deploying exactly the right music at the right time in its commercials.

Modern TV advertising technology company, Madhive, hired Kristin Wnuk as its senior vice president of sales. A former Roku and Hulu executive, Wnuk will build on the company’s success powering streaming campaigns for localized broadcasters and advertisers, while also providing an entry point for national brands and adtech companies to utilize Madhive’s technology.

CTV ad spending is riding a wave of consumer adoption and platform launches. By 2025, spending will reach $34.49 billion, more than double the 2021 total of $14.44 billion. This means that, as a function of overall digital video ad spending, CTV will approach one-third in 2025 from roughly one-quarter in 2021. This escalation is driven by increased cord-cutting, more time spent on CTV, device companies like Roku and Vizio doubling down on their ad businesses, and the proliferation of ad-supported video platforms despite continued momentum in subscription-based ones

Music supervisors and labels use Songtradr’s music-tracking platform, Tunefind, to research sync placements in movies and TV series.

While more streaming platforms are moving into the ad-supported space (including Disney+ and Netflix), FASTs are completely free services that can offer either or both live linear channels and ad-supported on-demand content. Players in the FAST space include media-owned FASTs such as Fox’s Tubi, Paramount’s Pluto TV, NBCUniversal’s Peacock (free version), and Comcast and Charter’s Xumo, as well as TV interface providers including Samsung TV Plus, Vizio WatchFree+, LG Channels, and aggregators such as The Roku Channel, and Amazon’s Freevee, as well as independent publisher like Crackle Plus.

But Wait, There’s More!

FAST channels are the new cable. [TV Rev]

The FASTs Are The New Cable, Part 2: Advertising study was based on conversations between TVREV and dozens of key executives in the media industry and the analyst noted that one of the more universal comments it heard was a fear that dollars would not follow eyeballs, given how difficult it was to buy advertising on streaming, or to buy advertising on streaming across multiple platforms.

You’re Hired!

MadHive hires Kristin Wnuk as SVP of sales.

With new technology and government regulations disrupting the old ways of collecting consumer data, marketers are in need of new ways to efficiently reach and consistently engage customers at scale.

Relationship marketing offers opportunities to drive revenue, create personalized experiences, and deliver a unique value exchange across the entire customer lifecycle. Here’s how four companies have recently implemented this strategy in each of the four stages: