Washington, D.C. — NAB Show will focus on the rapidly growing FAST TV business in “Fast Channels and Furious Growth,” a Main Stage session open to all attendees on April 17 at 2:30 p.m. at the Las Vegas Convention Center. Leaders in streaming and digital distribution will discuss their strategies to harness the worldwide audience’s appetite for free, ad-supported television, which hit revenues of roughly $4 billion in the U.S. last year and is projected to triple over the next five years.
Moderator Dade Hayes, business editor at Deadline Hollywood, will be joined by panelists Amy Kuessner, executive vice president of Content Strategy and Global Partnerships at Paramount Streaming; Adam Lewinson, chief content officer at Tubi; Jim Packer, president of Worldwide Television Distribution at Lionsgate; and Bill Rouhana, chairman and chief executive officer at Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment. They will discuss programmatic challenges and opportunities, how to utilize targeted advertising effectively and how to build infrastructure quickly.
Kuessner is responsible for content strategy, partnerships and licensing for Paramount Streaming, with a key focus on Pluto TV and specialized areas of Paramount+. Under her lead, Pluto TV has built a library containing over 400,000 hours of programming with 50,000 unique titles from 425 global content partners. Kuessner was also instrumental in the creation of Pluto TV’s original channel strategy and successfully struck FAST deals with the NFL, CNN, Scripps, BBC and AMC Networks, among others. She has specialized in emerging digital technologies in previous roles with NBCUniversal, Liberty Media, Sony Corporation and DIRECTV.
Lewinson is responsible for content strategy, acquisitions, development and production for Tubi, a division of FOX Corporation and a free streaming service with 50,000+ titles from every major Hollywood studio, a growing library of Tubi Originals and 200+ FAST channels across news, sports and entertainment. Previously, as senior vice president of Programming and Marketing at Sony Pictures Television and its streaming platform Crackle, he oversaw the programming strategy and content slate for Crackle and led the expansion of the service’s content library to include titles from most major studios.
Packer oversees the distribution, licensing and marketing of Lionsgate’s feature films, television slate, STARZ original programming and the Company’s 18,000-title film and television library to broadcast, cable, SVOD, AVOD and FAST platforms worldwide. Under his leadership, Lionsgate achieved record annual library revenue of $845 million in 2022, an increase of more than 50% over the past four years. In addition, Packer directs Lionsgate’s strategies for capitalizing on evolving distribution and licensing opportunities.
Rouhana is CEO of Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment – the largest independent free streaming service, which includes more than 160 FAST channels, Crackle, Redbox, and Chicken Soup for the Soul AVOD services, an extensive library of Ad-Supported Video on Demand (AVOD) movies and TV series, a major TVOD service and over 34,000 Redbox kiosks. The Company’s own FAST channels, are also syndicated to numerous third parties, including Roku, Samsung, LG and others. Rouhana was previously the founder and CEO of Winstar Communications, a wireless broadband pioneer, and Winstar New Media, one of the earliest online content companies. He is involved in many philanthropic activities and served with the Secretary General of the United Nations as co-chairman of the Global Creative Forum.
Photo by Antonio Janeski on Unsplash
