Rio de Janeiro, BRAZIL  — Brazilian indie specialty channel community Couch Digital will announce in Rio2C 2025 the launch of three new specialty channels on platforms of free advertising-supported streaming tv (FAST) in Brazil. 

Filmelier TV Esperanca, Filmelier TV Paixao and Filmelier TV Vida Actual will likely be added to the FAST platforms Samsung TV Plus, LG Channels, TCL Channels, Pluto TV and Roku Channels, Fabio Lima, CEO of Couch, informed Selection.

As the unique Filmelier TV, the three new channels will function applications with 24-hours of indie pics dubbed to Portuguese. Filmelier TV Esperanca (Hope) may have pics with plots centered on religion and the overcoming of difficulties. Filmelier TV Paixao (Ardour) will provide romantic comedies, crime of ardour plots and different movies alike. Filmelier TV Vida Actual (True Life) may have biopics, docs, and conflict and historic movies, mentioned Lima.

The three specialty channels are progressively boarding the totally different FAST platforms in Brazil, in addition to in Mexico and different Latin American international locations with feeds in Spanish, he mentioned. With the brand new additions, Couch now has a complete seven FAST channels.

Closely concerned in Rio2C because it focuses on FAST channels, one of many largest progress axes in Brazil, Lima would be the topic of a Rio2C fireplace chat delivering tips about making a FAST channel on Might 27. He delivers a masterclass on constructing streaming audiences two days later and talks on a panel analyzing streaming economics on Might 30.

FAST is booming in Brazil, the place the sector chief is Samsung TV Plus. South Korean-based Samsung Electronics, the main vendor of sensible TV units on this planet and in Brazil, launched Samsung TV Plus in South Korea in 2015, in keeping with Aline Jabbour, director of Samsung TV Plus for Latin America. The corporate then deployed the providers in Europe and the U.S., additionally launching in Brazil in 2020.

The platform is now accessible in 30 international locations and has 88 million lively customers, outlined as viewers related a minimum of quarter-hour per day. Brazil is within the second place on Samsung TV Plus’ rating, behind solely the US, totalling 22.4 million lively customers, she mentioned, which suggests 89.6 million potential prospects watch the platform’s programming.

Samsung TV Plus’ lineup in Brazil consists of about 120 channels of various varieties. It has channels accessible in pay-TV, resembling CNN Brasil and Document Information and indie specialty channels, resembling Couch’s bouquet. Some channels originated in YouTube, Instagram and different social media, resembling  Case TV, which has the rights for Brazil of some high sports activities occasions.

The platform additionally consists of single IP (mental property) channels, which give attention to a single program, resembling “Os Dez Mandamentos” (a TV Document telenovela), “Malhacao” (a TV Globo cleaning soap opera/telenovela) and “MasterChef.”

Telenovela channels lead the viewers on Samsung TV Plus in Brazil, adopted by information, movie and youngsters channels, Jabbour mentioned. However sports activities channels, particularly Case TV, can lead the viewers when it airs necessary dwell soccer matches and through the Summer time Olympics.

Lima and Jabbour attribute the FAST increase in Brazil to a number of elements. First, the service is free, which is vital to the success in a rustic in improvement resembling Brazil, the place customers are notoriously value delicate.

The service is simple to entry. As quickly as you activate the TV set, a present pops up on display screen, and it’s easy to navigate and choose one other channel.

Brazilians are used to free-to-air TV and to watching reveals with promoting breaks, together with movies – so long as they don’t interrupt a soccer match.

Lastly, the channels are segmented. “Curators arrange the content material to particular audiences. We’re at a state of the business through which the curatorial work is vital. Curatorship is the brand new distribution,” Lima informed Selection.

Jabbour stresses the profitable enterprise mannequin of FAST, which relies on segmented promoting. Samsung makes use of an automated content material recognition (ACR) software program to gather information from every sensible TV. The software program displays what the viewers of every gadget are watching, if subscribed streamers, resembling Netflix or Prime Video or pay-TV, open-TV or FAST channels, and it might even acknowledge if the viewers are enjoying a online game. It factors out what channels and the precise reveals the viewers watch.

“We don’t know who’s watching, however we all know precisely the buyer habits of every gadget. Promoting is far more refined in FAST than in open TV,” mentioned Jabbour. “FAST is an evolution of open TV and pay TV, mixed with the fashionable benefits of streaming.