James Ross, CEO of Lightning International, talks FAST channels and content distribution innovation.
The unlikely pairing of Japanese wrestling and London’s iconic Royal Albert Hall helped contribute to global buzz for The Grand Sumo Tournament in October. The event was commercially and technically distributed by the team at Lightning International with partners that included DAZN, Rakuten Japan, LG Channels, Pluto TV, and more. James Ross leads Lightning International and is firmly focused on out-of-the-box strategies across FAST and traditional content distribution as the company adapts to shifting business models.
How do you see the FAST channels landscape in the region?
It’s still behind Europe, which is still behind the U.S., but growing quite well now. It is still early days. We’re not yet seeing the level of revenue flowing through that we’d like to see, but it is starting. Certainly, the big connected TV services are starting to roll out services across the region in various territories. We’re also seeing FAST platforms from broadcasters such as Mediacorp and TVB. Australia is well advanced with FAST as well. I’m optimistic about FAST; folks across much of Asia like free stuff. FAST is great content viewers don’t have to pay for, and in return, they watch ads, and hopefully everyone’s happy!
Tell us about the journey you’ve been on to ensure every service is localized with AI subtitling.
We’ve been doing live subtitling with AI on a number of our channels now—in Japanese, Chinese, Thai; multiple different languages. We do it in tandem with how the platforms and revenues are growing. Even though it’s AI, there’s still a cost to it. It’s still a fairly complex arrangement to make it happen. The good news is it works well. We’re getting good results back.
What do you consider when evaluating when to take on a brand to represent in the region?
The suitability of the channel for the audience and the platform, and the suitability for advertisers. Advertisers need something attractive to put their money next to effectively. Viewers need to see something worth watching. The important thing is some kind of brand. That could be an individual program brand, a channel brand, or genre-type content branding, but whatever it is, it needs to be clear; it says what it is on the tin. People need to know what they’re going to watch. If we can’t get people to tune into the channel because they don’t recognize it, we’re all wasting our time. We need some kind of familiar branding. That’s what we work hard at. The content is super important after that. For a FAST channel, it needs to be content you can dip in and out of. That’s why news and music channels work well. We’re seeing success with things like quiz shows. True crime is one of those things that seems to work, but there are regulatory issues we have to be careful about. Kids’ content gets watched, but it’s very difficult to monetize at the moment because of so many regulations on advertising directed at kids.
Do you think the FAST trajectory will differ in the region, given that broadcasters are playing a leading role rather than just the big AVOD players that set the landscape in the U.S.?
The reality is, we’ve had to drag some broadcasters kicking and screaming into the FAST world. It’s not been an easy pull. They’re very used to traditional ways of broadcasting, whether it’s pay TV or free-to-air terrestrial. Some of the technical and bureaucratic systems that some of these companies have—forgive me, my partners, but some of you have tough systems! They’re realizing the opportunity, but the pioneers still are in the connected TV world.
Lightning International does a lot more than FAST channels. What’s driving the program-sales side?
It’s been a tough five, six, seven years for program distribution for everybody. Our business has been consistent. For a while, it plateaued, but it has been growing in the last 18 months or so. This year has been particularly good. We sell to everybody. We don’t just sell to TV stations anymore. We sell to a wide range of online platforms. Big streamers, small streamers. Airlines—anybody who wants to buy content. We’re finding you have to be super innovative. There’s no point in just hacking on the same old clients year in, year out. It doesn’t work like that anymore. You’ve got to find other ways to get that content out there. And that’s what we’re focusing on. We do a lot of crossover between our distribution business and the channels business. We’ve focused on a couple of live events. One in particular was The Grand Sumo Tournament from London. We distributed it as a live event, highlights, recordings, and a pop-up channel on FAST. Using the content in lots of different innovative ways seems the way forward. My favorite word is be innovative. We have to get out there and try different things.
What are your priorities for the year ahead amid these constantly shifting plates that we are on?
I’m not a big fan of the word uncertainty. I’m a big fan of the word opportunity. There are now multiple opportunities to do multiple different things. We just need to keep reinventing ourselves. The only way to stay in the business is to reinvent, rethink, and do it differently. How can we integrate with what’s happening in the market? What do people want? Lightning has been going for 14 years now. In that time, we’ve completely changed our business structure, how we do things, and who we work with. Somehow, we still keep hanging on! υ
