When PBS and Amazon executives began negotiating a deal to create public FAST channels for Prime Video, both sides came to the table with different ideas about what was possible.

PBS wanted a deal that reflected its partnerships with YouTube TV, Hulu and Local Now, all of which offer a 24-hour PBS Kids channel as well as hundreds of local live streams from stations across the country. However, Amazon rejected the proposal. Transmitting so many feeds from non-commercial broadcasters would not bring in enough revenue for the tech giant.

To sweeten the deal, both sides agreed to a compromise. Amazon agreed to carry more than 150 local station feeds and the PBS Kids channel, while PBS committed to creating two ad-supported FAST channels of its signature programming and an ad-supported “pop-up” channel that would be a is dedicated to popular programs from the past.

In the end, both parties viewed the deal as a win-win situation. PBS will broadcast the stations’ local live streams into people’s homes and there will be no cost to the stations to participate; Amazon will generate the revenue it needs to make the channels viable. Ryan Pirozzi, head of Prime Video Marketplace, described the new PBS offering in a press release as “one of the most exciting FAST offerings today for Prime Video customers.”

Amazon Prime Video, which has more than 200 million monthly viewers, launched PBS Dramas and PBS Documentaries on November 26. The third channel, intended for viewers who want to watch reruns of a classic show from the PBS archives, launched with Reading Rainbow. As for viewers, non-Prime subscribers will continue to get free access to public television channels in the Watch Free section of Prime Video.

“This was a complex deal,” PBS President Paula Kerger said during a recent PBS board meeting. “Companies like Amazon don’t really want to use all these free channels that they can’t monetize. … They would really rather have a single feed than use a lot of local stations.”

Kerger praised Ira Rubenstein, chief digital and marketing officer, for helping lead the discussions with Amazon. Rubenstein led negotiations for PBS contracts with YouTube, Hulu and Local Now, but noted that the new contract with Amazon is different.

“What we learned early on is the high cost of carrying 150 stations to these partners,” Rubenstein said in an interview. “With no advertising inventory available on our local stations’ live linear feed, there needed to be another way for these FAST platforms to monetize content to offset these costs. The solution we decided on was the additional channels of older PBS content.”

This means that third-party advertising will not appear in Amazon’s local channel feeds, as is the case with other commercial FAST channels. Viewers will see the familiar mix of local and national underwriting spots as the FAST streaming feed closely matches the broadcast feed.

Happy middle ground between past and present

Free, ad-supported streaming TV channels have grown in popularity as the cost of subscription video streaming services has risen. As cord cutters become more and more frustrated trying to access their favorite programs, they are longing for a piece of the glory days of channel switching.

FAST channels represent a happy medium between the past and the present. You can’t select specific episodes of a show to watch on a FAST channel, but there are many shows available. There are channels that broadcast the stunts that turn your stomach Fear factor with a young Joe Rogan as host. There are also sports and music feeds and channels for Minecraft and Roblox.

Earlier this year, Horowitz Research reported that two out of three television viewers in the U.S. watch FAST channels each month.

Public media is no stranger to the FAST channel phenomenon. The joy of paintinghosted by the late Bob Ross, features a FAST channel on various platforms under the management of Bob Ross Inc. and American Public Television. Likewise, PBS Distribution, co-owned by PBS and GBH, has the FAST channel PBS Food, which airs cooking shows from Julia Child and other chefs. There is also a FAST channel for Antiques Roadshow and the BBC series Antiques Road Trip.

The next logical step for public media in the FAST channel space is adding local stations to the mix, Rubenstein said. Now that this deal is done, he’s ready to celebrate.

“There’s nothing more local than a local station broadcast,” he said. “This gives them more opportunities to get exposure for free on a very popular platform where they can promote the PBS app, PBS Pass, membership and other things they offer in terms of local services. It also allows for a stronger local underwriting presence.”

Rubenstein noted that PBS was the first national broadcaster to strike such a deal with Amazon, beating out commercial giants Fox, CBS, NBC and ABC, each of which has hundreds of local stations in its portfolio.

“I’m excited to say we’re the first to bring all of our stations onto a FAST platform, because no other network has done that,” Rubenstein said. He noted that platforms like Tubi and Pluto offer some local affiliates from the top five or ten markets, but never all local commercial channels.

In-depth catalog + nostalgia = “Perfect fit”

At launch, the PBS drama channel will air episodes from the Masterpiece series Poldark, Grantchester, The Forsyte Saga, Victoria, Wolf Halland the PBS original civil war drama, Mercy Street. The documentary channel offers programs from nova, Secrets of the Dead, Independent lens, POV, American experience And Nature. The channel will also stream the first two seasons of Find your roots.

The first “pop-up” channel for PBS and Prime Video is dedicated Reading Rainbow. PBSd President Andrea Downing said in a statement that the choice of this series, which was the most-watched PBS show in classrooms in the early 1980s, was due to the success of PBS Retro, a FAST channel focused on classic content, which launched on Roku in April. Reading Rainbow is a popular series with “an extensive catalog of seasons,” she said. Given the high demand for nostalgic content Reading Rainbow “… is the perfect candidate for the first pop-up channel.”

Amazon’s Prime Video service has further expanded its reach in free TV. In 2019, IMDb Freedive was founded, later renamed IMDb TV and renamed Freevee in 2022. Amazon announced last month that it would close Freevee and integrate its programs and employees into Prime Video.

Rubenstein wouldn’t go into specifics of the Prime Video deal, but noted that he was particularly pleased with Amazon’s “minimal commitment” to carry the various PBS-related FAST channels. This provision had been a sticking point during the talks.

“Most of these FAST partners have no minimum commitment for the channels they launch,” Rubenstein said. “If a channel is underperforming, it will simply be shut down.” He declined to say how long Amazon’s minimum commitment will remain in place.

Rubenstein sees the Amazon deal as an opportunity to conclude similar deals with other FAST channel providers. Bundling ad-supported FAST channels of older content with local broadcasts is “the model we can copy for our other partners,” he said. “We hope it’s a model that works for everyone. It works for the partner. It works for our stations. It works for our producers.”

Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that GBH operates FAST channels featuring Julia Childs’ cooking series and Antiques Roadshow. PBS Distribution, co-owned by PBS and GBH, operates PBS Food, which features series by Julia Child, Jacques Pépin and other chefs; and channels dedicated Antiques Roadshow And Antiques Road Trip.