Partner Spotlight with Navio

This month I had the pleasure of sitting down with Navio Networks CEO, Douglas Neiman, to learn more about their FAST imprint, programmatic strategy, and predictions for 2024.

Navio has deep roots in digital video content syndication and linear channel development–going all the way back to 2006. What would you say has been a key driver in your longevity as a company? 

Our experience with video syndication and linear channel development dates back to the mid-2000s when we ran the Universal Sports television network, which NBC Sports eventually acquired. We had licensed over 600 live sporting events a year and were seeing spikes in viewships and then drop-offs. So, we sought a way to leverage highlight clips between the live event viewership spikes to level out our daily digital audience metrics.  

We also wanted to create more sellable digital ad inventory to drive additional revenue. We discovered that fans came to our site to watch ‘live’ events but quickly retreated to other endemic sport sites. Our solution facilitated bringing a video player loaded with short-form highlights and ads to the ‘homes’ where these sports enthusiasts’ communities resided. After successfully creating a 100+ website partner network and views were going through the roof, we knew we were on to something. 

Today, Navio Networks’ general company thesis hasn’t changed from those earlier days – bring compelling content (and ads) to where the fans are currently hanging out. Over the years, we have been able to leverage large audiences as they have traveled from web properties to social networks…and now on FAST platforms. 

Navio owns and operates six popular FAST channels, with three dedicated to sports (CampusLore Sports, Wired2Fish TV, Court Sports Network), and earlier in 2023 you announced a carriage agreement with FubuTV–can you talk a little about how advertisers successfully leverage your sports content programmatically? 

Navio sports channels have a mix of distribution across the FAST landscape. In addition, if Navio has secured the rights to a high-profile live sports event or to satisfy a distribution obligation, we will look to simulcast the event on 3rd party channels or FAST platforms where our channel may not be currently carried.  

Our goal is to create as much sellable ad inventory for advertisers interested in reaching a highly engaged fan base. Due to the complex nature of who retains advertising ‘sales rights’ within FAST, we look to secure as much access to our own inventory as possible. Terms could be an inventory split, a front/back-fill right or the ability to buy back our inventory from the streamer, similar to a YouTube deal. Based on these inventory access points, we set up PMPs and PG deals to ensure opportunities for brands looking to buy our channels programmatically. We do also allow for some open bidding as well.  

You recently added the Nexxen ad server to your tech stack–what were some of the key factors that led you to select Nexxen? 

Navio is constantly testing new technologies as we look to gain an edge in the market. In reviewing Nexxen, we spent months stepping through the UI / UX with the product teams at Nexxen before adding them to our stack. Our business operations team were encouraged by Nexxen’s willingness to add engineering resources to solve our suggestions on improving the offering while they were still in Alpha–from the dashboards to the workflow.  Many of these changes were implemented in a relatively short time frame, so our team felt comfortable allocating resources to add Nexxen into the mix.  Since launching, we are encouraged with the early results having seen solid revenue lift with our demand partners when transacting through Nexxen. 

It’s officially 2024! Do you have any predictions on what we might see in the industry in the next 12 months? 

We predict that the TV manufactures’ FAST streaming products will carve out certain verticals within their platforms to create a 2nd or 3rd environment to support focused channel bundling – an interim step to greater user customization. From a consumer experience, we are looking forward to when one can turn on the TV and be presented with various FAST tabs/apps–one for Sports, one for Kids along with original FAST streaming tab/app. This will assist with discoverability of content while making the original default FAST app less cluttered and easier to navigate–while enabling improved capabilities for sponsors and advertisers.