The recent breakout success of Amazon Freevee’s mockumentary, Jury Duty, has shown how FAST platforms are branching out with popular original content. For a long time, these platforms flew under the radar and mainly built their catalogs from older seasons of shows that might not be the buzziest must-watch hits. But having the buzziest content was never part of their business model since the main draw for audiences to these platforms is the fact that they are free.
If we look at the trajectory of demand for Jury Duty we can see that it didn’t blow up until late April, weeks after it premiered on April 7th. The show reached its peak demand (24 times the average series demand) on May 1st. It is no doubt that part of the reason this show needed some time to take off is that audiences were not expecting to find new, viral content on a platform like Freevee. Had the show premiered on a platform like Netflix, chances are that audiences would have discovered it much faster.
While Jury Duty might be generating the most buzz for Freevee at the moment and helping new audiences to discover the platform, it stands apart from the other most in-demand shows on the platform, most of which are licensed series. The two most in-demand shows available on Freevee in May were Lost and The X-Files, both shows that have long since ended but remain popular. Reality series like Pawn Stars, Dance Moms, and Hell’s Kitchen with their long list of episodes are viewing fare perfectly suited for FAST platforms where audiences are likely to have shows playing in the background.
The ad-supported business model is in vogue again with even Netflix introducing an ad-supported tier. Ultimately this means that there is going to be increased competition going forward for these most price sensitive audiences. As the competition for audience attention in this space heats up we will likely see more original content from FAST platforms like Jury Duty or The Roku Channel’s Weird: The Al Yankovic Story that will help them draw new audiences in with an incentive above and beyond the free price tag.
