When PBS and Amazon executives began negotiating a deal to create public TV-related FAST channels for Prime Video, both sides came to the table with different ideas about what was possible.

PBS wanted a deal that reflected its partnerships with YouTube TV, Hulu And Local nowall of which offer a 24/7 PBS Kids channel, in addition to hundreds of live local broadcasts from stations across the country. Amazon, however, balked at this proposal. Carrying so many streams from non-commercial stations would not generate enough revenue for the tech giant.

To sweeten the deal, the two sides reached a compromise. Amazon agreed to carry more than 150 feeds of local stations and the PBS Kids channel, while PBS committed to creating two ad-supported FAST channels of its flagship programs and an ad-supported “pop-up” channel dedicated to a popular program from the past. .

Ultimately, both sides viewed the deal as a win-win. PBS will bring the stations’ local live broadcasts into people’s homes and the stations will be free to participate; Amazon will earn the revenue it needs to make the channels viable. Ryan Pirozzi, head of Prime Video Marketplace, described the new PBS lineup in a press release as “one of the most exciting FAST offerings for Prime Video customers today.”

Amazon Prime Video, which has more than 200 million monthly viewers, launched PBS Dramas and PBS Documentaries on November 26. The third channel, designed for viewers who want to repeat a classic program from the PBS archives on repeat, began with Rainbow reading. As for viewers, non-Prime subscribers will still enjoy free access to public TV channels in the “Watch Free” section of Prime Video.

“This was a complex deal,” PBS President Paula Kerger said at a recent PBS board meeting. “Companies like Amazon don’t really want to run all these free channels that they can’t monetize. … They would really rather use one source rather than many local stations.

Kerger thanked chief digital and marketing officer Ira Rubenstein for helping lead discussions with Amazon. Rubenstein guided negotiations for PBS’s deals with YouTube, Hulu and Local Now, but he noted that the new deal with Amazon is different.

“What we learned early on was the high cost these partners have to incur to carry 150 stations,” Rubenstein said in an interview. “With no ad inventory available on our local stations’ live linear feed, these FAST platforms have had to find another way to monetize content in order to offset these costs. The solution we decided on was additional channels of old PBS content.

Therefore, local station feeds on Amazon will not display third-party advertisements like other FAST commercial channels. Viewers will see the familiar mix of local and national subscription spots, as the FAST streaming feed will be exactly the same as the broadcast feed.

A happy medium between past and present

Free, ad-supported streaming TV channels have grown in popularity as the costs of subscription video streaming services have increased. As cord cutters become frustrated trying to access their favorite programs, they find themselves yearning for a bit of the glory days of channel-changing.

FAST channels represent a happy medium between the past and the present. You cannot select specific episodes of a program that you want to watch on a FAST channel, but there are many shows available. There are channels that show stomach-churning stunts Fear factor with a young Joe Rogan as host. There are also sports and music streams and channels for Minecraft and Roblox.

Earlier this year, Horowitz Research reported that two out of three American viewers use FAST channels each month.

Public media are no strangers to the FAST channel phenomenon. The joy of paintinghosted by the late Bob Ross, has a FAST channel on various platforms run by Bob Ross Inc. and American Public Television. Likewise, GBH has FAST channels for several Julia Child shows and the BBC series. Road Trip Antiques through its partnership with PBS Distribution, jointly owned by PBS and GBH. There is also a FAST chain operated by GBH to Antiques crawl.

The next logical step for public media in the FAST channel space was to add local stations to the mix, Rubenstein said. Now that this deal is done, he’s ready to celebrate.

“There’s nothing more local than a local station’s show,” he said. “It gives them more opportunities to take a look at a very popular free platform where they can promote the PBS app, PBS Passport, membership and other things that they offer in terms of local services . This also gives more visibility to local subscription.

Rubenstein noted that PBS was the first national broadcaster to strike such a deal with Amazon, beating out commercial giants Fox, CBS, NBC and ABC, which each have hundreds of local stations in their portfolio.

“I’m excited to say we’re the first to bring all of our stations together on one FAST platform, because no other network has done this,” Rubenstein said. He noted that platforms like Tubi and Pluto carry some local affiliates from the top five or ten markets, but never all local commercial stations.

In-Depth Catalog + Nostalgia = “Perfect Fit”

When it launched, the PBS drama channel aired episodes of Masterpiece series Poldark, Grantchester, The Forsyte saga, Victoria, Wolf Halland the original PBS Civil War drama, Mercy Street. The documentary channel presents programs from Nova, Secrets of the dead, Independent objective, Point of view, American experience And Nature. The channel will also broadcast the first two seasons of Finding your roots.

The first “pop-up” channel for PBS and Prime Video is dedicated to Rainbow reading. PBSd President Andrea Downing said in a statement that the choice of the series, which reigned in the early 1980s as the most-watched PBS show in classrooms, stemmed from the success of PBS Retro, a channel FAST focused on classic content launched in April. on Roku. Rainbow reading is a beloved series with “a full catalog of seasons,” she said. Given the high demand for nostalgic content, Rainbow reading “…is the ideal candidate for the first pop-up channel.”

Amazon’s Prime Video service has continued to expand its reach into free TV. In 2019, she created IMDb Freedive, later renamed IMDb TV and in 2022 renamed Freevee. Amazon announced last month that it was shutting down Freevee and integrating its programs and staff with Prime Video.

Rubenstein would not discuss specifics of the Prime Video deal, but noted that he was particularly pleased with Amazon’s “minimum commitment” to carry the various PBS-related FAST channels. This provision was a sticking point during negotiations.

“Most of these FAST partners have no minimum commitment to the channels they launch,” Rubenstein said. “If a channel is underperforming, they will just drop it.” He declined to say how long Amazon’s minimum commitment will last.

Rubenstein sees the deal with Amazon as an opening to strike similar deals with other FAST channel providers. Bundling ad-supported FAST channels and older content with local station distribution is “the model we can replicate for our other partners,” he said. “We hope this is a model that will work for everyone. It works for the partner. This works for our stations. It works for our producers.