he FAST Festival, please click here
BY MANSHA DASWANI
The Discovery Conundrum
FAST may not be the buzzword that it was, but amid the media business’s renewed interest in advertisingsupported models, the segment continues to hold potential for consumer-facing platforms and IP owners savvy enough to navigate the challenges and opportunities of the sector.
For the third edition of the FAST Festival, we wanted to explore the business from a range of different angles, from the platforms balancing FAST and on-demand lineups to distributors of scale and niche purveyors. All are finding new ways to address what Looper identified in a recent report as the business’s two biggest speed bumps: discovery and monetization. “The question is no longer whether people will watch FAST. It’s can the business keep up?” Looper said in its report on FAST trends. “While 88 percent of viewers say they’re open to exploring free ad-supported channels, 50 percent of executives believe FAST is overcrowded or lacks standout content. This misalignment shows that audiences aren’t fatigued; they’re just not being effectively engaged. Discovery on FAST platforms, not saturation, is the bottleneck.”
Discovery, curation, monetization and more will be in focus across our three days of sessions. Registration for the FAST Festival is entirely free , providing you with access details for each session, available live and on-demand, as well as our post-event exclusive white paper.
Enjoy the show!
WEDNESDAY, JULY 23
9 a.m. EDT Pluto TV’s Olivier Jollet
The third edition of the FAST Festival kicks off with a conversation with Olivier Jollet, executive VP and international general manager of Pluto TV, on scaling the platform’s global presence, channel curation and the importance of partnerships.
10 a.m. EDT Lightning International’s James Ross
James Ross, CEO, will share with FAST Festival delegates how Lightning International is navigating the crowded European FAST landscape and finding new expansion opportunities across the Asia Pacific.
11 a.m. EDT Rakuten TV’s Marcos Milanez
Marcos Milanez, chief content officer at Rakuten TV, returns to the FAST Festival to share his programming strategy across FAST, on-demand and TVOD.
THURSDAY, JULY 24
9
a.m.
EDT All3Media International’s FAST Track
Exploring All3Media International’s approach to windowing, curation and more, FAST Festival delegates will hear from Gary Woolf, executive VP of strategic development, and Amanda Stevens, senior VP of global digital partnerships.
10 a.m. EDT BBC Studies Goes FAST
Kasia Jablonska, director of digital and on-demand for EMEA at BBC Studios, joins the FAST Festival to share how the IP powerhouse is capitalizing on its deep library to find new ways to engage with audiences.
11
a.m.
EDT pocket.watch’s Albie Hecht
Pocket.watch has expanded its franchise-building flywheel to also include FAST channels; the company’s chief content officer, Albie Hecht, will speak at the FAST Festival about how the outfit approaches curating its digital-first content slate for a linear, lean- back viewing experience.
12
p.m.
EDT Radial Entertainment’s Garson Foos
On the heels of Shout! Studios’ merger with FilmRise, Garson Foos, CEO of Radial Entertainment, will weigh in on digital distribution opportunities for the combined independent outfit.
FRIDAY, JULY 25
9 a.m. EDT Independent Spirit: The Platform Perspective
A veteran of the global pay-TV channels business, Chris Sharp will join the FAST Festival to share how wedotv is curating a slate of channels for its AVOD platform.
10 a.m. EDT Independent Spirit: The Producer Perspective
Brian Volk-Weiss, CEO of The Nacelle Company, will share with FAST Festival viewers how his indie has developed a multiplatform ecosystem for its content, including rolling out the popular Comedy Dynamics FAST channel curated from its library of stand-up performances.
11 a.m. EDT Bilingual Boom: The U.S. Hispanic Opportunity
With U.S. Hispanic audiences over-indexing in FAST usage, FAST Festival delegates will hear from Karsten Amlie, senior VP of content distribution and general counsel at Canela Media, about serving the needs of this demographic.
FAST FESTIVAL 2025 SPONSORS
Lightning International
Lightning International is a content solutions company with a focus on creating and distributing FAST TV channels. Based in Hong Kong and the U.K., Lightning distributes a package of 20-plus FAST channels, which are carried on numerous platforms around the world. These channels are fully curated by Lightning to broadcast standards and are available in Asia and worldwide. They include channels such as Action Hollywood Movies, Concerto, Docsville, Kartoon Channel!, LFCTV, Now 70s, Now 80s, Now 90s00s and Now Rock, Pet Club TV, Pulse Wildlife, RCM, TRACE Urban, TRACE Sport Stars, NewsWorld, Globetrotter and our latest additions: Samurai Vs Ninja, PANIC TV, hi Life! and hi Drama! www.lightninginternational.net
pocket.watch
Pocket.watch creates global franchises from the world’s most popular kids and family digital creators and characters. From incomparable originals like the Emmy-nominated Ryan’s Mystery Playdate, to a vast and growing collection of high-performing creator-sourced content, all optimized and packaged for premium platforms, pocket.watch’s 35,000plus-hour catalog makes it the largest independent kids’ and family studio on the planet. pocket.watch
Cisneros Media
Cisneros Media is a story developer and premium content producer of a range of genres. Its linear platforms reach over 50 million subscribers. Mobius.Lab Productions, its nonfiction division, has grown to serve domestic and international audiences, off ering award-winning short- and long-form content for every platform. Its divisions include Venevision, the leading TV network in Venezuela; Cisneros Media Distribution, a global distributor of more than 30,000 hours of entertainment content; a group of cable channels reaching over 25 million subscribers in the U.S., Latin America, the Caribbean and Spain; Miss Venezuela, a multiplatform female-oriented production house; and Mobius.Lab Productions. www.cisneros.com
All3Media International
All3Media International distributes popular, awardwinning TV programs to over 1,000 broadcasters and media platforms around the world. The company has been celebrated for producing, marketing and distributing high-quality, groundbreaking and pioneering shows to a global audience, consistently topping the Broadcast and Televisual annual Indies surveys and receiving the Queen’s Award for Enterprise in recognition of its growth, twice. Its catalog contains over 30,000 hours of content across all genres. www.all3mediainternational.com
Karsten Amlie Senior VP, Content Distribution & General Counsel
Canela Media
Karsten Amlie, a licensed attorney, has achieved success over the course of his career in identifying and driving growth initiatives at the intersection of content, technology, brands and connected consumer experiences. At Canela Media, Amlie is responsible for helping to navigate complex deal structures while serving as a trusted advisor in M&A transactions, rights acquisition, IP, product and brand launches.
Prior to joining Canela Media, Amlie was senior VP of content distribution and business development at Estrella Media. He has also been running Affiliate Relations Advisors, an independent advisory firm serving small- to medium-sized content brands and networks, media companies and digital platforms, for nearly 20 years as founder, president and contracted chief growth officer.
SESSION Friday, July 25, 11 a.m. EDT Bilingual Boom: The U.S. His panic Opportunity
Radial Entertainment is the parent company of FilmRise and Shout! Studios. Radial Entertainment is a premier, global content distribution platform boasting a diverse library of 70,000 movies and episodes, making it one of the largest independent catalogs in the industry.
Prior to the founding of Radial, Foos was CEO and co-founder of Shout! Studios, one of the industry’s preeminent independent film and television distributors.
Foos’s vision and expertise provided the opportunity for Shout! to secure a strategic partnership with Oaktree Capital to further strengthen Shout!’s position as a leader in content distribution and marketing. In 2025, Foos led the acquisition of Grav itas Ventures. This July, funds man aged by Oaktree Capital Management acquired FilmRise and merged it with Shout! Studios.
Foos has positioned Shout! Studios and FilmRise at the forefront of the rapidly evolving entertainment industry.
SESSION
Thursday, July 24, 12 p.m. EDT Keynote
Garson Foos CEO
Radial Entertainment
Albie Hecht Chief Content Officer pocket.watch
Albie Hecht is an Academy and Emmy Award-winning television producer and media executive who creates hit content that becomes household names.
At pocket.watch, Hecht oversees a studio creating content for over 45 of the biggest kids’ and family YouTube creators, adding up to over 40,000 hours of content available for distribution. Hecht has developed and produced a slate of new original series and specials for pocket.watch from the world’s most popular kids and family creators, all from top-performing favorites on YouTube. These originals first premiered on Ryan and Friends Plus, pocket.watch’s premium subscription channel, which became the largest independent kids’ and family SVOD in the market in 2023 with active subscribers growing 50-plus percent year-on-year. Hecht also produced and directed pocket.watch’s first full-length feature film, Ryan’s World the Movie: Titan Universe Adventure.
He was previously president of Nickelodeon and, in 2005, co-founded Shine Global, a nonprofit media company for which he has produced over nine feature documentaries.
SESSION
Thursday, July 24, 11 a.m. EDT Keynote
Kasia Jablonska is responsible for developing and executing strategic plans aimed at expanding digital revenue streams, innovating new digital products and optimizing audience engagement on various digital platforms across EMEA. Since her arrival at BBC Studios, Jablonska contributed to the launch of VOD service BBC Player in Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Greece, BBC Nordic+ and BBCNL+, with BBC Player set to launch in Spain later this year. Under her leadership, BBC Studios has grown its FAST portfolio in EMEA to seven channel brands in 42 countries
A senior industry executive with over 20 years’ experience in content monetization, commercial and editorial strategies, Jablonska has collaborated with leading media companies, online and cloud-based service providers and held roles at NBCUniversal, A+E Networks, Scripps/Discovery and Endemol Shine. She was honored as one of the Top 50 VOD Professionals in the U.K.
SESSION Thursday, July 24, 10 a.m. EDT BBC Studios Goes FAST
Kasia Jablonska Director, Digital & OnDemand, EMEA BBC Studios
Olivier Jollet Executive VP & International General Manager Pluto TV
Olivier Jollet has been a driving force behind the global expansion of the FAST model. His pioneering leadership has propelled Pluto TV to become the most distributed FAST service across the world, now available in over 35 countries and territories across four continents, with millions of viewers tuning in globally.
Jollet leads a unified international strategy for Pluto TV, working closely with teams across content, distribution, marketing and finance to accelerate the platform’s growth outside the U.S. His efforts have not only expanded Pluto TV’s global reach but also deepened its impact through innovative partnerships and a diversified content offering. As a member of Paramount’s global streaming leadership team, Jollet has played a pivotal role in shaping the international business. Recent highlights include strategic collaborations with M6 in France and DAZN in the GSA region, as well as the expansion of Pluto TV’s sports and news portfolio, bringing in darts, football, women’s sports, CNN, CBS News and more.
A founding member of Pluto TV’s leadership team, Jollet was instrumental in launching the service in the U.K. and Germany before its acquisition by Paramount.
SESSION
Wednesday, July 23, 9 a.m. EDT Keynote
Marcos Milanez is responsible for Rakuten TV’s content strategy, acquisitions, programming and originals.
Building on Rakuten TV’s success as one of the leading platforms in Europe, Milanez has grown Rakuten TV’s services across TVOD, AVOD and FAST, and its originals offering.
Prior to joining Rakuten TV in 2018, Milanez held senior positions at leading media companies including WarnerMedia, Vubiquity, World Wrestling Entertainment and TV Globo/Globosat, gathering over 20 years of experience in licensing content and TV channels across a variety of rights internationally.
SESSION
Wednesday, July 23, 11 a.m. EDT Keynote
Marcos Milanez Chief Content Officer
Rakuten TV
James Ross Founder & CEO
Lightning International
Lightning International distributes a bouquet of 20-plus FAST channels fully curated to broadcast standards and carried on numerous FAST platforms globally. They include movie channels RCM and Action Hollywood Movies and documentary channels Docsville and Pulse Wildlife. Plus, Pet Club TV, Kartoon Channel!, TRACE Sport Stars, Newsworld, music channels
TRACE Urban, Concerto, Now 70s, Now 80s, Now 90s00s and Now Rock, as well as Globetrotter. In addition, Lightning runs a successful program syndication business, a full channels creative and managed services business for pay-TV and FAST clients and a consultancy division. The company is now part of satellite and media services company AsiaSat.
Prior to Lightning, Ross worked for the BBC as an engineer, studio manager and reporter. He was part of the launch team in Tokyo for Bloomberg TV Asia, building a strong presence and distribution for the channel across the Asia-Pacific region and developing close relationships with many cable and satellite broadcasters. In 2006, he was appointed regional director of Asia for ITV.
SESSION
Wednesday, July 23, 10 a.m. EDT Keynote
Ch ris Sharp has 30-plus years of experience in the entertainment industry. He founded one of the main independent TV companies in Europe, Zone Media (formerly Zone Vision). After Zone Media sold to Liberty Global and became Chello Zone, Sharp was named chief programming officer, a role he retained after Chello Zone’s sale to AMC Networks International.
Since 2018, he has been co-CEO of Video Solu tions, the owner of the wedotv, which operates an AVOD platform, available online and through apps, as well as the FAST channels wedotv movies, wedotv BIG stories, wedotv sports, wedotv amor and time2Rlx.
SESSION
Friday, July 25, 9 a.m. EDT Independent Spirit: The Platform Perspective
Chris Sharp Co-CEO
Video Solutions
Amanda Stevens Senior VP, Global
Digital Partnerships
All3Media International
Amanda Stevens is tasked with identifying new ad-supported opportunities and maximizing existing deals. She was most recently Samsung TV Plus’s senior manager of business development for all third-party channels, a role in which she worked with All3Media International. Her remit extended to managing content strategy, rights negotiation and delivery of FAST channels and AVOD platforms.
Prior to this, Stevens was senior manager of content partnerships at TalkTalk and also held roles including head of acquisitions for Comedy Central and MTV.
SESSION
Thursday, July 24, 9 a.m. EDT All3Media International’s FAST Track
Brian Volk-Weiss has guided Nacelle from a talent management division to a diversified American media company, leading the charge in the pop culture and comedy spaces. Nacelle has produced and distributed scripted and unscripted content and established toy, consumer products, podcast, development, distribution, record, publishing, marketing and management divisions.
Volk-Weiss’s vision involves showcasing groundbreaking stories and pop culture history through Nacelle’s signature documentary filmmaking style and unique approach to storytelling.
SESSION
Friday, July 25, 10 a.m. EDT Independent Spirit: The Producer Perspective
Brian Volk-Weiss Director, Executive Producer, CEO & Founder
The Nacelle Company
Gary Woolf Executive VP, Strategic Development
All3Media International
Gary Woolf is responsible for researching and implementing new and innovative commercial strategies while building on the success that All3Media Interna tional has achieved in the digital arena.
Woolf holds strategic responsibility for All3Media International’s digital publishing team (led by Amanda Stevens), which is focused on building AVOD, SVOD, EST and FAST revenues on a global basis where the company can directly publish its content in partnership with each platform or service. The team looks after a range of FAST services (over ten now in distribution) and several thousand VOD hours.
Woolf is also commercially responsible for AI opportunities within All3Media International specific to use and protection of its content. As part of his responsibilities, he sits on a cross-company AI working group for All3Media, inputting on AI policies for use across the business.
SESSION
Thursday, July 24, 9 a.m. EDT All3Media International’s FAST Track
