Future of TV Briefing: How Telemundo is using TV, digital and streaming originals to program its live 24/7 FAST channel

Having devised the idea for the channel in 2021 and then begun developing it in earnest last year, “we very soon realized that we couldn’t launch the FAST channel just with one hour of original content,” said Telemundo’s senior director of news digital Marta Planells on stage during the Digiday Publishing Summit last week.

While a lot of FAST channels – like their cable TV counterparts – fill time by airing repeats of shows, a news channel especially needs to be refreshed often enough that viewers can develop a habit of turning to it for the latest information. But not so often as to become cost-prohibitive. So Telemundo has sought to split the difference.

“We launched with three and a half hours [of live programming] daily, and those three and a half hours are spread out throughout the day. So we do a 7 a.m. show, a 10 a.m. show, a 1 p.m. show, a 4:30 p.m. show, 7 [p.m.] and then 11 p.m. So it’s blocks of 30 minutes throughout the day,” said Planells.

And how Telemundo produces those live programming blocks is also an effort at maximizing efficiency. Some of the live blocks are called NTA Originals and produced by a team dedicated to the FAST channel, and others are produced by Telemundo’s traditional TV team and shot as extensions of the linear TV newscasts. 

“That way we’re able to leverage the linear resources without disturbing their operation,” Planells said.

That’s not to say the linear extensions for the FAST channels are facsimiles of the traditional TV newscasts. There may be differences in which stories are presented or how they are presented. The same can be said for the channel’s NTA Originals newscasts vs. the linear extensions. 

Case in point: NTA Originals use a different workflow for producing graphics. The graphics for the linear newscasts involve a system called Vizrt that requires a dedicated person operating that system. But with roughly 10 people working on NTA Originals – excluding the operations and technical teams – the NTA Originals team couldn’t afford to have one person solely dedicated to that operation. Instead the NTA Originals team adopted a tool used by Telemundo’s digital operation for YouTube, Facebook, TikTok and Instagram called Flowics, said Planells, “which allows you to actually manage the graphics with the same producer that is typing the banners and the supers and everything. So it was more nimble and easier for us and more flexible.”

The graphics workflow isn’t the only element of NTA’s programming strategy borrowed from its digital operation. The channel also airs live streams that are simulcast across digital platforms, including YouTube, Facebook, TikTok and Instagram, such as U.S. President Joe Biden’s recent speech at the United Nations General Assembly. Additionally, NTA runs compilations of videos produced for Telemundo’s YouTube channel that are organized by topic, like immigration or health. And eventually Telemundo plans to add a host element to those compilations that can further help to infuse the channel with more live programming.

“We want to grow the grid, and growing the grid means that we need to do as much live as possible. So if we’re able to bring someone in and talk about health stories with an anchor and a live hit, it will be a success,” said Planells.

What we’ve heard

“Of the streaming dollars that came in, of those billions of dollars, more than half of them are transacted programmatically.”

— Disney’s Jamie Power on the latest Digiday Podcast episode

Numbers to know

$1.8 billion: How much money Amazon reportedly secured in advertiser commitments during this year’s upfront market.

18 million: Number of pay-TV subscribers that DirecTV and Dish have between them, a 63% drop from their 2016 counts.

200: Number of employees Scripps will lay off after it decided to stop producing national news programming.

What we’ve covered

How Disney is nearing its goal to automate 75% of ad sales by 2027:

• Disney’s svp of addressable sales Jamie Power is the guest on this week’s Digiday Podcast.
• More of than half of the streaming dollars that advertisers committed to Disney in this year’s upfront are set to be transacted programmatically.

Listen to the latest Digiday Podcast episode here.

Influencer agencies expand into talent management to reach more creators:

• Influencer agencies are looking to do more than just help creators sign brand deals.
• Socially Powerful describes its strategy as attempting to build “an agency within an agency.”

Read more about influencer agencies here.

What we’re reading

DirecTV plus Dish:

The two satellite-based pay-TV providers will combine companies and — with 18 million subscribers between them — become the largest pay-TV provider in the U.S., according to Bloomberg.

CNN plus documentaries:

Two years after exiting the documentary business, CNN is back in the market to finance and distribute documentary series and films, according to The New York Times.

Paramount minus Nielsen:

The parent company of CBS, MTV and Paramount+ let expire its contract to use Nielsen’s measurements as the two sides haggle over the price of Nielsen’s measurement service, according to Variety.

VideoAmp plus ?:

Nielsen’s primary rival is in the midst of its own issues with financial challenges pushing VideoAmp to the brink of a sale or joint venture with a rival measurement provider, according to Axios.

Sky versus Warner Bros. Discovery:

The Comcast-owned European pay-TV provider has sued WBD for not allowing Sky to become a co-producer on the upcoming “Harry Potter” series and have exclusive distribution rights to the show, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Amazon plus news:

Amazon is in talks with former NBC news anchor Brian Williams to host a live Election Night show on Prime Video, according to Variety.