Step 1: Stop Guessing, Start Defining Your Audience

Before you spend a single dollar on content, you need to know exactly who you’re buying it for. Most FAST channels fail because they try to be everything to everyone. Don’t be like them. Your goal is to be the go-to channel for a specific type of viewer.

Ask yourself:

• Who is my ideal viewer? Are they a 35-year-old true-crime fanatic? A 25-year-old looking for reality TV drama? A 50-year-old who loves classic Westerns? Get specific.
• What is my channel’s unique promise? Are you the “24/7 Horror Channel”? The “Home for International Cooking Shows”? The “Classic Sitcom Rewind”? Your brand promise dictates your content choices.

When you have a crystal-clear audience persona, every acquisition decision becomes 10x easier. You’re no longer just buying “a movie”; you’re buying “a 90s thriller that will resonate with my 40+ female audience.” See the difference? It’s the foundation of a successful content strategy.

Step 2: Understand the Money — FAST Licensing Models Explained

Content acquisition isn’t just about what you buy; it’s about how you buy it. The right licensing model protects your cash flow and maximizes your upside. For FAST, some models are much friendlier than others.

The Big Three Licensing Models

• Revenue Share (Rev-Share): This is the most common model in FAST, and for good reason. You pay little to no upfront fee. Instead, you split the advertising revenue with the content distributor. It’s a true partnership — you both make money when the content performs well. This should be your default model when starting out.
• Flat License Fee: Here, you pay a fixed price for the rights to air content for a specific period (e.g., $5,000 for 2 years). This can be risky if the content underperforms, as you’ve already sunk the cost. It’s more common for high-demand library titles or exclusive content.
• Hybrid Model: This is a mix of both — a smaller upfront fee plus a rev-share component. It can be a good compromise for securing popular content while sharing the risk and reward.

For 90% of new and growing FAST channels, a rev-share model is the smartest path. It allows you to build a large content library without a massive upfront investment. Your costs scale with your revenue.

Step 3: Build Your Content Sourcing Engine

Okay, you know your audience and you know your deal structure. Now, where do you actually find the content?

Relying on random inbound emails won’t work. You need a proactive sourcing strategy. Think of it like building a pipeline that constantly feeds you on-brand, affordable content opportunities.

Key Sources for FAST Content

• Major Studio Libraries: Studios like Paramount, Warner Bros., and Sony have vast libraries. They often license older film and TV shows to FAST platforms. These can be anchor content for your channel but may come with higher fees or stricter terms.
• Independent Distributors: These are gold mines for FAST channels. They represent thousands of films and series across every genre imaginable. They are often more flexible on terms and eager to partner on rev-share deals.
• Content Aggregators: Companies that bundle content from various sources, making it easier to license a large volume of programming at once. They are built for the FAST ecosystem and handle much of the technical delivery.

The key is to not just find them, but to track them. Who has the content that fits your niche?

Who is offering flexible rev-share deals? Keeping this information organized is critical. Platforms designed for the media supply chain, like Vitrina’s solutions, help you discover and monitor these partners efficiently.

Step 4: Let Data Drive Your Decisions

Here’s where the top 1% of FAST channels separate themselves from the rest. They don’t guess what to program; they use data.

Once your channel is live, you have access to a wealth of performance metrics. The most important one? Audience retention. Which shows do people watch all the way through? Which ones cause them to change the channel?

Use this data to create a feedback loop for your acquisition strategy:

• Double down on what works: If a certain genre (e.g., creature features) or actor is performing well, go find more content like it. Your data gives you a clear mandate.
• Identify content gaps: See where viewership drops off. This might indicate a need for a different type of content in that time slot.
• Test and measure: Use new content acquisitions as experiments. Program a new movie or series and watch the data closely. Did it lift viewership? If so, you have a new winning formula.

Data transforms your acquisition strategy from a high-risk gamble into a calculated investment in audience growth.

Step 5: Systemize Your Acquisition Workflow

Managing content acquisition via email, spreadsheets, and endless follow-ups is a recipe for burnout. It’s slow, messy, and things will fall through the cracks. You need a system.

A streamlined workflow should look something like this:

1. Discovery: A centralized place to find new content and distributors.
2. Tracking: A simple way to track deals in progress, from initial outreach to signed contracts. The Vitrina Project Tracker is an example of a tool built for this.
3. Evaluation: A standardized process for reviewing screeners and checking content against your brand guidelines.
4. Onboarding: A clear workflow for receiving marketing assets, metadata, and video files from the distributor.

When you systemize this process, you free up your time to focus on high-value tasks like building distributor relationships and analyzing performance, instead of being buried in admin.