NBCUniversal Commits to FAST with New Channels and Deals

We’ve watched the rise, and surprising boom, in FAST, or free, ad-supported TV, channels over the last few years. Used well, they’ve proven to be a good drawcard for viewers, and even a solid funnel into paid streaming services. Especially now ad-supported tiers have become such a focus. At a time when many of the larger streaming competitors are pushing for profitability, however, NBCUniversal seems thoroughly dedicated to a rapid expansion of their FAST offerings. Blake & Wang P.A entertainment lawyer, Brandon Blake, reveals the new changes.


Brandon Blake

30 New FAST Channels

Drawing from NBCUniversal Global Distribution library content as well as their current TV and streaming portfolio, this content will now be available on-demand via 30 new FAST TV services. This will be the first time much of this content is available for free off of linear services, making the size and scope rather unprecedented in the industry. Several of the new channels are headed to Xumo Play and Amazon FreeVee as of launch. Existing NBCUniversal channels will remain in play.

Xumo Support

Xumo Enterprises, the B2B side of the Xumo company, was acquired by Comcast in 2020. And Comcast, of course, is the parent company for NBCUniversal, as well. So the news that Xumo Enterprises will be supporting the news offerings over their third-party agreements is no real surprise.

FAST is still one of the unique selling propositions for Peacock that few other streamers are using. It is also a sector that’s shown massive growth, taking home some strong billion-dollar figures in the TV sector. It is also being eyed as a way to keep library titles earning and showing to new audiences. Perhaps it is fitting that NBCUniversal would be a pioneer in this new content-access style, given they have a rather valuable portfolio to offer up for curation.

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