Disney (Kinda) Gives A D About FAST Channels

Over a month ago, I wrote this article about how Disney should fully embrace the growing FAST market and launch channels that are untethered to apps or streaming services as well as providing several I'd like to see them create.

A lot has changed in a month, and Disney shut down all of their free TV Everywhere-connected apps with the exception of ABC News Now. The ABC, Disney Now, Nat Geo, ESPN, FX, and Freeform apps are dead, and everything that those apps offered to cable consumers who wanted their shows on the go are now locked behind a paywall on Disney+ and Hulu. 

The ABC app was interesting because they had several FAST channels, or as they called them, Unlocked Channels, connected to it. Among them:

  • 20/20
  • ABC News Live
  • General Hospital Spotlight
  • Press Your Luck
  • To Tell The Truth
  • To Catch A Smuggler
  • Wicked Tuna
  • Car Chases
  • True Life Stories
  • The Incredible Dr. Po
  • ABC News Live
  • ESPN 8: The Ocho
  • Cesar Milan Better Human, Better Dog
  • Life Below Zero
  • Lost Treasures
  • Supernanny
Days before the apps shut down for good, Disney did something interesting. They decided to launch many of their Unlocked Channels as FAST channels across many AVOD streaming platforms like Tubi, The Roku Channel, and Freevee. 

Looking at the listings on my Fire TV, I've noticed some recent additions:
  • 20/20
  • General Hospital
  • Supernanny
  • Car Chases
  • Wicked Tuna
  • The Incredible Dr. Pol
  • ESPN 8: The Ocho
Also, some stand-alone FAST channels from Disney that also were added includes the following:
  • Nat Geo Sharks
  • According to Jim
  • Extreme Makeover: Home Edition
  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer
  • NYPD Blue
  • Big XII Studios
Not quite what I had in mind when I came up with my channel options, but it is a huge step. The NYPD Blue channel is probably the closest-in-concept outlet to what I had suggested with the Crimes in Blue FAST channel which would have had a variety of harder crime shows like NYPD Blue and Hill Street Blues.

As you can see, not every "Unlocked Channels" FAST network from the old Disney apps migrated from there. The two Fremantle-based game show channels (Press Your Luck and To Tell The Truth) aren't stand-alone FAST networks, but that's likely because Fremantle hasn't grant Disney wider coverage to control them (considering Fremantle is crushing it with BUZZR and stand-alone FAST channels for Family Feud, The Price is Right, and Let's Make a Deal, they'll probably do something with those shows in the future). 

What is surprising is seeing Disney control a pair of FAST channels that are centered around properties they don't own outright. Extreme Makeover: Home Edition is owned by Banijay and Supernanny is owned by Warner Bros Discovery, but various Disney-owned units hold some domestic distribution/broadcast rights to those shows. 

Is this the beginning of Disney going head-on into FAST media? It's a start, especially for a company like Disney which has been hesitant to give away anything for decades. Granted, I doubt they'll do anything as audacious as the TV Disney concepts, but at least Disney is attempting to explore FAST media a little more compared to, say, a year ago. 

Now, bring on a FAST movie channel with classic 20th Century Fox films, and we'll be cooking here.

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