Independent Streaming Alliance formed
June 13, 2023
Industry players from the ad-supported streaming television sector are to work together to help build a healthy ecosystem that values independent voices and programming, with the formation of the Independent Streaming Alliance (ISA).
The ISA is a procompetitive independent industry forum to proactively engage and work collaboratively with consumers, platforms, regulators, and media. ISA founding members include: Allen Media Group, Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment, Cineverse, Future Today, kweliTV, Revry, Scripps, Tastemade, TMB (Trusted Media Brands), and Vevo.
Together, the ISA founding companies offer over 2,200 independent streaming touchpoints, which generate more than half a billion hours of watch time every month, representing a diverse, highly engaged audience of consumers globally.
“The formation of the ISA is long overdue,” declared Philippe Guelton, Chief Revenue Officer at Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment. “We are joining forces to promote the value of independent streamers, and to work hand-in-hand with platforms, advertisers, and regulatory bodies to ensure that we have a healthy ecosystem that benefits everyone, not just the few.”
In addition to representing independent players, the alliance will also highlight and represent minority-owned businesses such as Allen Media Group, Future Today, and kweliTV, and will use its platform to advocate for more diverse programming and a more equitable playing field industrywide.
“The FAST space has been an exciting and important outlet for diverse and underrepresented communities over the past few years,” said Damian Pelliccione, co-founder and CEO at Revry. “The ISA is the industry support required for a global LGBTQ-first streaming media network like ours to continue to provide free ad supported TV for many years to come.”
The ISA currently has three working groups including measurement, distribution, and demand, which all represent key areas of opportunity and challenge for independent streamers in the marketplace.
- The Measurement working group that will help establish the overall reach of alliance members and work to establish collective value for platforms and brand marketers, including working with 3P measurement providers, aggregating viewership, and jointly messaging the virtues of the alliance that promotes its value to platforms and brand marketers. The ISA has selected iSpot.tv as an audience and ad measurement partner to help quantify the total unique reach of the alliance and to lay foundations for utilising iSpot’s streaming and cross-platform measurement capabilities as a possible currency.
- The Distribution working group is focused on developing and sharing best practices for growing audiences, while also working directly with platforms to ensure that there are fair business practices in place and an even playing field for everyone.
- The Demand working group is focused on working with SSP’s, DSP’s, brands, and agencies to ensure its members’ advertising may be purchased and sold seamlessly in compliance with industry norms, whether through direct IO or leading programmatic buying platforms.
“Most of the members of the ISA were early adopters of FAST and played a major role in its initial growth and adoption,” commented Cameron Saless, Chief Business Officer at TMB. “As this industry matures and consolidates, we believe that we can play an important role in helping our peers and partners solve some of the important challenges around content discovery, data privacy, and demand transparency, while also ensuring independent programming does not get left out of the equation.”
“The ISA is an opportunity to level up our ecosystem by defining standards and best practices that will benefit consumers, advertisers, and programmers alike,” said Evan Bregman, General Manager, Streaming at Tastemade. “Tastemade is proud to be on the leading edge of building a sustainable streaming industry.”
The ISA will continue to recruit members across the spectrum of independent ad-supported video streaming services distributed on televisions and other connected devices.