“Everyone’s talking about FAST channels.”

That’s not quite true.

Everyone who knows what FAST channels are, and either profits from them already, or plans to pivot to them in a hurry, is talking about FAST channels. That’s a lot of people, and their numbers are only rising.

FAST (Free Ad-Supported TV) channels offer opportunities for creators and viewers to beat the linear broadcast TV experience. Creators can curate content for FAST channels to attract new audiences and monetize content.

And are FAST channels actually fast? Well, in FAST-relative terms, very quick channel creation is gauged in hours or days.

That speed’s achievable now because a best-of-breed video streaming software company, Unified Streaming, has joined forces with an elite OTT platform service provider, Quickplay.

Quickplay and Unified Streaming are even teaming up to demonstrate their FAST channel solution: during the IBC trade show in Amsterdam, at Unified Streaming’s stand #5.B78.

The two companies are forcing FAST channels to live up to both their acronym and their adjective. They let you deliver FAST channels fast. In business terms, of course, fast to market means fast to revenue. And revenue is king.

Besides the pace factor, why should it matter that Unified Streaming and Quickplay are collaborating?

Let’s say you own some VOD content, and you want to generate, or ​“spin up” a FAST channel. So you do a search.

If you first turn to Quickplay, then you’ve got a plum job, because the company’s a one-stop shop. Quickplay’s cloud-native platform and CMS provide a rich infrastructure for connecting to content. Further, Quickplay’s mature relationship with other companies in the ecosystem such as Google Ad Manager enable you to personalize and monetize your content easily.

Named the 2021 Google Cloud Industry Solution Media & Entertainment Partner of the Year, Quickplay integrates seamlessly with Google’s cloud infrastructure. Going with Quickplay means gaining access to a whole suite of tools, and not just Google Ad Manager and Google Cloud tools — other tech partnerships, too. Which is always a considerable plus.

Quickplay’s analytics tools and its personalization engine can hone your targeting of your content and your ads. With a battalion of big data systems and algorithms behind it, Quickplay can quickly identify your viewers’ preferences and advance your content delivery accordingly.

The feature-rich and flexible Quickplay CMS need to be supported by an equally impressive media packaging solution. And that’s where Unified Streaming comes in.

Unified Origin, a just-in-time packaging solution, equips the collaborative solution of the two companies with a dynamic and full feature set of advanced capabilities. Unified’s packaging finesse fortifies Quickplay’s optimization capabilities. Unified Origin supports all industry-standard playout formats, codecs, on-the-fly encryption, and all the major DRM systems (Adobe Access, FairPlay, Marlin, PlayReady, and Widevine) with multiple keys and key rotation.

Fulfilling the namesake potential of FAST channels, Unified Streaming dynamic packaging of content is done nearly instantaneously.

And to capitalize on Quickplay’s kinship with ad, search, and AI tools, Unified Streaming’s own ad stitching power runs under the hood of the FAST channel solution, conditioning content to make it suitable for ad replacement.

Looking for a FAST channel creation system that lives up to its name? Come see the solution from Unified Streaming and Quickplay in a demo environment at IBC, at stand 5.B78.

Also, email Unified Streaming at sales@​unified-​streaming.​com to schedule some time to meet. Either during IBC, or any time, really. At Unified, we’re always keen to talk about solutions.

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