Visionaries and leaders from throughout the video industry gathered in New York on September 12 for the Next TV Summit, a daylong event featuring panels and keynotes on the latest trends, challenged predictive models, success stories and insights into the continued navigation of a historically disrupted TV content industry. The event is part of NYC TV Week, a full slate of events that also includes the Advanced Advertising Summit, Hispanic TV Summit and the 40 Under 40 New York gala. Click below to view event photos. 

FAST channels are on the rise, but executives speaking at the “What Makes FAST Go” panel at Tuesday’s Next TV Summit said that the platform’s fast growth has created some business challenges for distributors and content creators.

With more than 1,800 free, ad-supported TV (FAST) channels currently in the marketplace and a projected universe of 2,000 by the end of 2023, according to panel moderator and Rasenberger Media president Catherine Rasenberger, it’s becoming more difficult for content to stand out, panelists said. 

“The competition is so fierce that we won’t bring a channel to market with fewer than 1,000 hours of programming,” said Stuart McLean, CEO of FAST Studios, which distributes sports-themed FAST channels targeting NASCAR fans, women’s sports and sports lifestyles. “Now that you see the major media companies rolling out their products, you really have to lean in as much as possible into original programming to make ourselves attractive to distributors.”

Cineverse president and chief strategy officer Erick Opeka added that content originality is vitally essential to distributors and viewers. “We’ve been working on defensible IP [intellectual property], where you use a single brand as a seed to launch a network and build original programming and brand extensions from there,” Opeka said of the streaming platform’s 36 FAST channels.  

While FAST channels are surging into the marketplace, panelists said the advertising revenue model is still a work in progress. McLean said relying on programmatic ad sales for the bulk of a FAST’s revenue is a mistake, given the uncertainty of the market. 

“If you’re relying on programmatic for your business, you don’t have a business,” he said, adding that his channels rely heavily on programming sponsorships to generate revenue. “Our ability to create custom content for brands is really our top strategy right now.” 

Yet for FAST operators like Plex, which doesn’t own or create content, programmatic ad sales are very important to the bottom line, Plex VP of operations Todd Hay said.

“My costs are in the distribution deals and the revenue-sharing deals I have with the content partners,” he said. “Since I don’t own the IP, it's hard for me to package and sell that so we’re 100% programmatic.”

With large media companies like A+E Networks, NBCUniversal, AMC Networks and Warner Bros. Discovery now getting into the FAST business with the launch of dozens of new, branded channels, several executives expressed concern that smaller companies may find it more difficult to get their channels distributed and recognized.

But Cineverse’s Opeka said that it should be technology, rather than a heavy reliance on legacy brands, that should drive the distribution of content to consumers. 

“We’re literally using touchmarks from the past like brands to determine how we’re going to entertain people in the future, and the reality is that the technology is far better than that,” he said. “The whole notion of using brands is a shortcut to help people find what they really want. Instead, let's use technology to help people find what they want.” 

Fuse Media senior vice president of digital strategy and operations Patrick Courtney added that FAST channel content featuring linear TV brands might not play as well with viewers in the FAST space. He added that Fuse’s FAST channels, such as Shades of Black, Latino Vibes and OUTtv Proud, have unique brands for the platform that will not be confused with the Fuse linear brand. 

“What we came to understand is that Fuse is a very strong brand in pay TV, but it is not a FAST brand,” he said. “We put a lot of effort into making sure that those are extremely good, well-curated products that are effectively monetized for our partners for the FAST platform.”

Eric Berger, CEO and co-founder of kids-targeted Common Sense Networks said that big media brands don’t resonate in particular with younger viewers, who are more interested in user-generated and shortform content that showcase people who look like them. “The content we’re pulling for the FAST platform is not library content, but it's current and new and they are important brands to those that are watching because they can see themselves in it, and I think that’s why we’re continuing to gain carriage the way that we are today,” Berger said. 

The Next TV Summit is part of NYC TV Week, which continues Wednesday morning with the Hispanic TV Summit. NYC TV Week is produced by Future plc, parent of Next TV, Broadcasting+Cable and Multichannel News. 

Evan Adlman, AMC Networks executive VP of commercial sales and revenue operations, sat for a fireside chat with B+C Multichannel News business editor Jon Lafayete to discuss his company’s FAST and AVOD strategies, and what is working on the newer media. He described the longtime cable programmer’s shift to streaming platforms as “more of an evolution than anything” as viewers’ consumption habits change. 

“It is no longer delivering to one particular endpoint,” he said during a fireside chat at Tuesday's Next TV Summit, part of NYC TV Week. 

Lafayette asked about AMC shows streaming on Max, both a competitor and a partner for AMC. Adlman said the strategy is to have AMC programming reach viewers and users on multiple platforms, so “they can access it on their own terms.” 

“There’s a lot to learn,” Adlman added. 

One perk of building FAST (free, ad-supported TV) channels is the abundance of user data one gets back, Adlman said. 

Asked what he’s seeing in terms of the upfront, Adlman mentioned “a push from the buying community on transparency,” and noted that AMC Networks has “always been 100% transparent.” 

There may be a glut of programming on streaming, but Adlman broke it down between premium content and “long-tail content” on FAST platforms. AMC programming, he added, falls in the premium bucket. 

Adlman mentioned The Walking Dead: Dead City, which premiered earlier this year, debuting on a Sunday night, with the latest episode on FAST channels the next day along with messages about how to watch the next episode on subscription streaming service AMC Plus. That strategy “has been working for us,” he said, in terms of building subscriber numbers and show buzz. 

Ad-supported AMC Plus premieres in October. Adlman said the company is excited about the launch. “We feel it’s another way for viewers to interact with us,” he said. “It allows our advertisers to reach a new set of viewers, and an incremental audience.”

Panel “The Battle for TV’s New ‘OS’”, part of the Next TV Summit in Los Angeles, looked at the competition to control the gateway between content, viewer and advertising. As the amount of programming available to viewers continues to escalate, the panelists spoke of making that process easier for the end user. 

Jamia Bigalow, head of brand and integrated marketing at Amazon Fire TV, spoke of a “content-forward” approach there, with the viewer seeing separate programming rows that are personalized, curated or sponsored. “How do we create a frictionless way for [viewers] to get in to see the content they want to see?” she said. 

Adam Bergman, VP at Vizio Ads, also described his outfit as content-forward. The SmartCast platform powers every new Vizio TV. Bergman mentioned how each TV in a different room in the house provides a different viewer experience. 

“If it’s good for the consumer, then it’s a business choice worth pursuing,” Bergman said. 

David Bloom of Next TV moderated the panel. 

John Gee, chief business development officer at LG Ads Solutions, spoke of the River OS and how it is designed to optimize the viewer experience. He also mentioned the OS recognizing different users, and different user expectations, based on their voices. 

“It’s all about delivering the right message to the right person at the right time,” said Gee. 

Dirk Wittenborg, chairman at Foxxum/rlaxx TV, shared about the TV viewing experience around the globe. The U.S. is dominated by big brands, he said, such as Samsung and LG, while much of the rest of the world is more like half well-known brands and half lesser-known ones. 

In terms of his company’s advertising components, he spoke of finding regional partners country by country. “They just basically market our inventory,” said Wittenborg. 

For Vizio’s part, Bergman mentioned “a completely integrated business” on the ads side.

Asked what TV might look like a few years out, Bigalow stressed the importance of live TV, including Thursday Night Football on Prime Video. “How do we make Fire TV the best place to watch those games?” she said. 

Gee said the future focus will be on “making it much easier to find and discover the content you want.”

TV of the near future, Bergman suggested, will be, in many ways, like the smartphone of today, where you can shop, place sports bets and pull off other tasks while watching. “How does the best screen in my house deliver the same things my phone does?” he said. ■

Byron Allen, founder and CEO of Allen Media Group, offered the keynote during the Next TV Summit at the Sofitel in Beverly Hills. Interviewed by Tim Hanlon, founder and CEO of The Vertere Group, Allen spoke about his start in television as a teen, his shift to industry titan, and how he sees the TV landscape today.

The interview was part of Broadcasting + Cable/Multichannel News/NextTV's LA TV Week.

Allen spoke of moving to Los Angeles as a child, his mother talking her way into work at NBC, and getting his start in comedy. Performances as a teen at the Comedy Store led to working on the writing team of Jimmie Walker, star of Good Times, with the likes of David Letterman and Jay Leno.

“I learned how to write jokes and create funny,” he said.

A co-host role on Real People, still in his teen years, followed. “It gave birth to everything you see and know about reality television,” said an ebullient Allen of the NBC unscripted show.

Allen shared how he grew to see the industry as “business show” more than show business in his shift from talent to ownership. “If you learn the business you can do as many shows as you want,” he said.

Still, selling syndicated shows to stations in the early days was a grind. “There were days I didn’t eat,” he said. “There were days they turned off my phone.”

Slowly, stations and advertisers got on board. “Dialing and smiling, smiling and dialing,” is how Allen recalled it.

Allen’s portfolio includes Entertainment Studios, The Weather Channel, TV stations and regional sports networks. He spoke of gobbling up URLs with a .tv suffix years back, including comedy.tv, cars.tv and pets.tv, and still sees the digital landscape as "a huge opportunity."

Allen singled out Local Now, essentially a throw-in in the Weather Channel acquisition, as “one of the greatest gifts ever from the digital gods.” He mentioned investing $100 million of his own capital “to reposition the asset” and make it AVOD, not SVOD.

“It is growing beyond my wildest imagination,” said Allen.

With several decades of television experience under his belt, Allen said the business continues to offer “an enormous untapped space,” with lots of revenue potential for savvy operators. ■

Legacy linear brands bring a sense of credibility and gravitas that will help drive viewers and subscribers to new streaming offerings, a panel of TV executives said at the Future-produced Virtual Next TV Summit event on April 27.

“Fundamentally, the value of a legacy brand or a well-known brand is simply trust,” PBS chief operating officer Jonathan Barzilay said during a panel session moderated by Broadcasting+Cable contributing editor Paige Albiniak. Barzilay added that when the broadcaster started making short-form content for the web, it collectively did so via the PBS Digital Studio name. “By putting the PBS name on all of these independently produced short form series, that conveys something to the audience. ... The trust that people have in the PBS brand and the awareness that people have in the PBS brand, maybe gave us a little head start.”

At The Weather Group, parent of The Weather Channel network, president Tom O’Brien said its streaming offering Local Now benefits from the more-established Weather Channel brand.

“The ability, the opportunity, is what you do with that brand. If you use it as an anchor, you use it as a basis of innovation,” O’Brien said.

At BritBox, a joint venture between British television icons the BBC and ITV, the focus has been trying to balance those two brands to establish a new digital identity in the U.S., Canada and Australia.

“It’s an interesting balance because we want to build our own brand equity, but do so leveraging that of our parents,” BritBox senior VP and commercial head Emily Powers said.

Ampersand senior VP, agency strategy Marion Hargett said legacy brands matter when launching OTT services because it gives potential viewers and customers a base on which to set their expectations. 

TiVo’s chief revenue officer, Matt Milne, said the company’s new consumer-grade streaming device, the TiVo Stream 4K, should hit the market in “the next few weeks.”

Speaking during a keynote session last Tuesday (April 28) during the Virtual Next TV Summit, part of Future’s Virtual NYC TV Week Spring, Milne said TiVo product developers have been working at home amid the pandemic to get the Android TV-based OTT device ready to market.

At CES in January, where TiVo introduced the $70 dongle and successfully created buzz for it, the company touted an April release date for the TiVo Stream 4K.

The TiVo 4K Stream will have access to all the apps available in the Google Play Store via Android TV. What will make it different from other OTT devices, Milne said, is its ability to tap TiVo’s sizable search and discover resources.

“We’re investing well over $100 million a year at a foundational level to help people with discovery,” he said. “This is a product built for the streaming wars. It’s built to bring all that content together.”

Users of streaming services, Milne said, spend an average of 11 minutes searching among an average of seven subscription VOD, AVOD and other OTT programming sources for a movie, TV show, or news or sports event.

The TiVo 4K Stream will allow users to navigate their apps through the traditional “Gemstar grid,” Milne said. But it will also offer a separate user interface based on TiVo’s proprietary search and discovery UI.

TiVo, he said, will become a “neutral third party,” with SVOD and AVOD platforms available to, in turn, anonymously monitor app usage through its platform.

TiVo isn’t totally neutral — it recently launched its own AVOD platform, TiVo Plus. Milne didn’t say whether or not TiVo Plus has any kind of priority status in terms of what search and discovery results users might get on TiVo Stream 4K.

“We see this as a merchandiser opportunity,” Milne said. “How do we connect the consumer to the content?”

Also at the Virtual Next TV Summit, a panel of programming executives talked about their services’ place in the streaming world and ways they are adapting. Craig Engler, general manager of AMC Networks-owned Shudder, the horror-themed subscription VOD service, said the disruption in the movie theater world prompted an April 28 “surprise drop” on Shudder of new original movie Blood Quantum that was originally supposed to debut in Alamo Drafthouse theaters. “That’s fun, because it creates excitement for people” who subscribe to the service, Engler said.

Rachel Brill, senior VP and general manager of B/R Studio, at WarnerMedia-owned Bleacher Report, said B/R is moving more toward integrating social and original programming within the app, notably with three days of NFL Draft coverage. The aim is to find shareable moments. “How do you truly create an all encompassing immersive experience for sports fans?” she said.

William Sager, chairman and CEO of The Preview Channel, said the year-old, OTT-delivered service plans to add new channels devoted to previews and trailers about video games and classic movies. “We are off and running” and serving passionate fans of games and movies, he said.

Brendon Thomas, VP of distribution at Viacom-owned Pluto TV, said at the ad-supported (free) VOD service “we do see ourselves a bit more as programmers than aggregators,” focused on optimizing the content it has used to create more than 250 “live linear-like channels” plus on-demand programming. 

Kent Gibbons contributed to this story.

New York -- Despite it being what she called one of the darkest periods for media in recent history, Bank of America Merrill Lynch senior media and entertainment analyst Jessica Reif said there is still plenty of room for growth for cable operators at the NextTV Summit here.

While the video segment has been pressured by intense competition from over-the-top and subscription video and demand players -- cable video penetration is around 30% of homes passed, she said -- there is still ample room to grow the broadband segment.

There is no doubt that the video landscape has changed dramatically -- Reif said we are in probably the “bleakest period for media we’ve ever seen.” But broadband penetration is still under 50% and there are opportunities in wireless and commercial services.

Scale, however, remains critical, as is evident by recent mega deals in the programming space -- AT&T’s purchase of Time Warner and The Walt Disney Co.’s buy of 21st Century Fox assets.

Reif said the latter deal -- Disney Fox -- shook the industry in that it showed that one of the industry’s founders -- Fox executive chairman Rupert Murdoch -- saw the need for a dramatic transformation of his business from linear entertainment to live sports and news.

“He saw the handwriting on the wall. That’s why everyone went into internal introspection -- do we buy or do we sell?” Reif said.

Scale doesn’t just mean increasing your domestic bulk. Reif added that today’s media giant needs to be global, adding that she believes Comcast would have been “marginalized” had it not won the auction for British satellite giant Sky.

“You need to be able to deliver content in many, many ways,” Reif said.

While Netflix appears to be the model every programmer is chasing, Disney’s 2019 direct-to-consumer offering -- chock full of Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars and Fox content -- and other DTC offerings to come could chip away at that dominance if that content were to be removed from the SVOD pioneer, Reif said.

CBS All Access allows the network to go deeper into its scripted storylines, said Marc Debevoise, president/COO of CBS Interactive, and create programming that is perhaps more in line with what’s being offered on streaming platforms and cable.

During a keynote at the Next TV Summit, part of NYC Television Week, Debevoise spoke of intensely serialized storytelling on CBS All Access, whose originals include The Good Fight and Star Trek: Discovery.

Read More: Complete Coverage of NYC Television Week

“We’re scratching deeper and deeper into those characters,” he said.

Debevoise was interviewed by Elaine Quijano, a CBSN anchor.

He identified cable networks AMC and FX as being peers in terms of originals. “We have advertising—we’re not all the way to the HBOs and Showtimes of the world,” he said.

CBS All Access and CBSN are helping the network reach a significantly younger audience. All Access’ average viewer is 43, and CBSN’s is 38. “We figured out that millennials want news,” he said. “They just want it in a different way.”

CBS will launch an OTT product dedicated to sports and news. Debevoise didn’t provide specifics, but said the launch is coming soon.

Three quarters of CBSN viewership is live, he said. “A ton of people came live,” said Debevoise, “and that was really key.”

Documentaries on CBSN, he added, give CBS news professionals “a little more breathing room” to tell a timely story.

Read More: Complete Coverage of the Next TV Summit

For CBS All Access, an upcoming launch is the comedy No Activity, from Funny or Die. “Those guys are great comedians,” he said of Will Ferrell and Adam McKay. “They know how to write, how to shoot, how to make things incredibly funny.”

CBS All Access costs $5.99 monthly. The Good Wife spinoff The Good Fight and Star Trek: Discovery, he said, have All Access’ originals strategy off to a strong start, and have driven subscriptions significantly. Of Trek, he said, “The reaction has been incredible. People love it, they hate it, they love to love it, they love to hate it.”

He credited the CBS broadcast network for helping the shows launch. “We happen to own the largest sampling platform,” said Debevoise. “We’re gonna use it when we can.”

New York – Short-form video clips can still drive viewership on OTT platforms, according to a panel session Wednesday (Oct. 18) at the Multichannel News/B&C NextTV Summit. part of NYC Television Week. And though there is no magic number as to how long an audience will pay attention to the videos, 15 minutes seems to be the limit.

Read More: Complete Coverage of #NYCTVWK

Comcast Watchable VP of programming Craig Parks said that while he has always chafed at the term – "short-form" implies “less than” to him – he added that it is increasingly valuable. But the length of the clips, he said, depends on what the content is being used for.

“If you’re cooking a pizza, it doesn’t need to be any longer than it is,” Parks said at the panel session entitled “The Transformation of Storytelling in the OTT/ On-Demand Era. “There is no magic number, no magic length.”

But he said that after producing 18 short-form series, he believes anything past 15 minutes might be pushing the envelope.

Read More: Complete Coverage of the Next TV Summit

While short-form shows may get short shrift compared with traditional 30-minute and 60-mnute series, panel members said the two can work together. At A+E Networks, Paul Cabana, executive vice president and head of History & Biography digital, said the network is bringing back the Biography channel brand, but only through one-to-two minute clips. At that length, he said, they can relaunch the Biography brand on any one of A+E Networks’s channels.

Gunpowder and Sky founder and CEO Van Toffler, a veteran of linear TV (he spent more than a generation at Viacom) said short-form video can lead to longer form projects, but that is a rarity. Short-form also has value in determining if a longer form show will resonate with the audience.

Toffler said his company is currently shooting a 7-minute pilot for a proposed 30-minute show. Once that pilot is finished, Gunpowder and Sky can put it online to determine how a young audience will react to it.

“I love the idea of down and dirty, fast and cheap pilots you put up on your own sites and learn from your experiments,” Toffler said.

The panelists saw mobile video as being the biggest disruptor to their businesses, but that too can be a perfect vehicle for short-form content.

“Let’s do more for mobile," said Revry CEO and co-founder Damian Pelliccione. “I don’t have any competitors in this space because we get to set the bar.”

Fox Networks Group has begun selling advertising in the video-on-demand content from its channels that is addressable on an individual household basis through Comcast Cable set-top boxes and streaming via Hulu.

TV networks are looking for ways to create innovations in advertising that can increase its value in an increasingly digital age. Fox has already been selling precision audience targeted ads on its linear network with its AIM solution. It is also a partner in Open AP, which is attempting to standardize selling ads based on specific audience targets rather than the traditional broad age and sex base demographic groups.

Comcast Cable has done addressable ad campaigns using dynamic ad insertion technology with its corporate sibling NBCUniversal.

Working with Fox is part of a trial program to see how the distributor can work with programmers on addressable advertising. A source indicated that Comcast is conducting addressable trials with another, unnamed, network group.

Both Fox and Comcast use Freewheel, a division of Comcast, to handle ad insertions.

Fox’s addressable effort is unique because in addition to working with Comcast’s subscribers, it can also offer viewers streaming on-demand programming from Fox Networks including Fox Broadcasting, FX, National Geographic and Fox Sports via Hulu.

Noah Levine, senior VP, advertising data & technology solution at Fox Network Group says that between Comcast and Hulu and its advertising clients more than 10 million households on an addressable basis.

Levine was expected to announce Fox’s new addressable advertising effort at the B&C/Multichannel News Next TV Summit in New York Wednesday (Oct. 18), part of NYC Television Week.

Read More: Complete Coverage of NYC Television Week

“Our strategy is to continue selling to linear buyer through Fox AIM linear,” Levine said. “Now we can also work with the addressable buyers to pursue the addressable opportunity.” Fox is looking to add cross-platform precision audience targeting.

“Our goal is to be able to provide audience targeting across our very wide portfolio of content regardless of the distribution modality,” Levine said.

Read More: Complete Coverage of the Next TV Summit

In addition to working with NBCU, Comcast’s local systems sell addressable ad campaigns to local advertisers.

“We think it’s really important that TV advertising becomes more sophisticated and this VOD trial is one way networks can unify their audiences and marketers reach their targets,” said Marcien Jenckes, president of advertising at Comcast.

With on-demand programming and steaming, Levine said the Fox’s addressable advertising can reach audiences that may not be watching linear.

He noted that addressable would be great for a financial advertisers that uses linear advertising to promote its brand but targets viewers of a different income and lifestyles for particular financial products.

Read More: Complete Coverage of the Advanced Advertising Event

Levine said Fox’s addressable solution is different than what most cable or satellite operators can offer because it can be overlaid with precision targeted programming on the Fox networks, which reach all of the markets in the country.

“That’s national scale,” he says. In addition, Fox has all of its national inventory while distributors only have access to two minute per hour.

That should make the Fox offering attractive to national advertisers.

“By combining addressable components with the linear components, we’ll be able to come up with very acceptable CPM ranges,” Levine said. He added that with addressable advertising, Fox benefits financially because there is very little waste once it and the advertisers have agreed on a data set and reporting method.

Addressable advertising is also good for viewers. “It allows is to provide more relevant advertising that s potential more interesting to the audience,” he said.

Amazon is hoping its "Channels" service will provide more value and choice to cord-cutting consumers looking to access traditional cable services, Amazon Channels head Richard Au said Wednesday (Oct. 18) at NYC Television Week.

Read More: Complete Coverage of #NYCTVWK

The service, launched in 2015 to Amazon Prime subscribers, offers access to more than 130 premium channels from cable networks such as Showtime, Starz and PBS Kids as well as to streaming services like Acorn TV and AMC’s horror-themed service Shutter.

Au, who spoke at a Next TV Summit morning panel moderated by B&C/Multichannel News editorial director Mark Robichaux, said Amazon Channels was created to provide increase content selections to consumers beyond Amazon’s original programming and on-demand content available through Amazon Prime.

Read More: Complete Coverage of the Next TV Summit

“It’s a great time to be a fan of video because there’s so much great content, but one of the challenges as a consumer is how to find the things that you like,” Au said. “We want to offer all of that content in a very integrated, easy way.”

Along with serving Amazon Prime subscribers, Au said that the Amazon Channels service also provides opportunities for participating cable networks to reach cord-cutting and cord-never consumers.

“We talk to our channel partners like HBO, Showtime and Starz to help them find incremental customers who may not have a cable subscription who have dropped one,” Au said. "We want to continue to make it really easy for our customers to discover new content, whether its Amazon original content or third-party content.”

Get complete coverage of the Next TV Summit.

NEW YORK – More than year after its initial launch in March, 2015 Sony PlayStation Vue chief Dwayne Benefield said the service is attracting a broad swath of customers, including families with children, a long way from the core gamer demographic the service initially targeted.

At the Next TV Summit here Wednesday (Oct. 19) during NYC Television & Video Week, Benefield, vice president and head of PlayStation Vue at Sony Interactive Entertainment, said that while two-thirds of its audience remains millennial, about one-quarter of subscribers are new to the PlayStation medium. That has been fueled by expanding the platforms that can run on the service.

“The new platforms definitely helped,” Benefield said in a fireside chat with Next TV editor and Multichannel News technology editor Jeff Baumgartner. “Having sticks from Amazon and Roku that are sub-$50 has helped with the ease of access to the service, PlayStation Vue is for the gamer household, including the children, wives and partners of the user.”

Benefield said that the typical PlayStation Vue customer is a heavy sports fan – its basic package includes all the Fox and Comcast regional sports networks – adult cartoons and some kids programming are also joining the most-watched ranks in the service.

“Mickey Mouse Clubhouse is one of our top shows,” Benefield said. “Kids’ channels are performing much better.  Families are engaging.”

PlayStation Vue has worked hard to include broadcast content in the service – it has reached deals to carry all four major broadcasters in their respective owned and operated [O&O] markets. While expanding out of that footprint has been more difficult, mainly because local affiliates are owned by several different groups, Benefield said the idea is to make local TV available across the footprint.

In markets where it currently doesn’t offer live local broadcasters, it offers “slim” versions of its three core packages – Access, Core and Elite – that allow users to watch network content on demand the day after original air. An Ultra TV package that includes premium channels HBO and Showtime and more than 100 other channels was added last month.

“The goal is to make all broadcast stations available,” Benefield said. “You will see us bring more and more live and local to users.”

Sony doesn’t release subscriber figures for PlayStation Vue, but Benefield said the service is exceeding all company expectations.  

Xumo, an aggregator of ad-based OTT video for smart TVs and mobile devices, said it has added programs and shows from Fox Sports to its free platform, including The Herd with Colin Cowherd, Skip and Shannon: Undisputed, Garbage Time with Katie Nolan, and Speak for Yourself, among others.

Additionally, the Fox Sports on Xumo channel will feature a mix of game highlights, clips from FS1  studio shows, and Fox Sports Digital originals such as @TheBuzzer, they said.

Xumo announced the content deal in tandem with NewBay Media’s NYC Television & Video Week. Colin Petrie-Norris, CEO of Xumo, is participating in a panel later today at the Next TV Summit, one of the individual events tied to NYC TV & Video Week.

Get complete coverage of NYC Television & Video Week.

Xumo recently launched an app for iOS, and has a version for Android in the works. Those apps complemented Xumo’s presence on Roku devices, smart TVs from Vizio, Panasonic, and Funai Electric Co. Ltd., which sells Sanyo-, Magnavox- and Philips-branded TVs in North America, as well as Channel Plus, an offering exclusive to LG-made connected TVs.

RELATED: LG Tunes In ‘Channel Plus’

“Xumo is building a strong following among sports fans and the addition of FOX Sports takes the platform to the next level,” Stefan Van Engen, SVP programming and content acquisitions of Xumo, said in a statement. “FOX Sports is home to some of the most popular sports shows, events, experts and personalities in the country and now their fans and Xumo’s fans will benefit from access to a ton of excellent sports programming on FOX Sports’ Xumo channel.”

Xumo has content deals with several other partners, including Time Inc., Condé Nast Entertainment, Bloomberg, Reuters, The Wall Street Journal, BuzzFeed, PopSugar, Mitú Network, Machinima, TYT Network, Reuters, Field & Stream, PBS Digital Studios , Network A, Fandor, Outside Television Shorts, Bonnier, Saveur, and Cycle  World.