Beyond Rights expands FAST strategy with LA-based OTTera

David Smyth

UK- and Australia-based distributor Beyond Rights is expanding its FAST strategy via a deal with OTTera, which will see a suite of both branded and IP-lead channels launched around the globe over the coming months.

The agreement will see LA-based OTTera working with Beyond to create a raft a channels, details of which remain under wraps at present. OTTera currently manages over 80 OTT services and more than 200 channels, claiming more than 100 million users worldwide.

The news comes less than year since former Twentieth Century Fox exec David Smyth was appointed CEO at Beyond Rights, as revealed by TBI. At the time, the company’s chief Michael Borglund talked up FAST channels as an area of expansions that was being explored.

Smyth is well-versed in ad-supported viewing, having been founder and CEO of AVOD service YouLook.tv, which he launched in 2020 with ex-Northern Shell and MCap executive Jason Mawer.

He added: “We are keen to see how this new partnership progresses and how it can benefit the evolving Beyond Rights business as well as the wide range of content creators with which we work.”

Beyond’s slate includes more than 7,500 hours, ranging from Love It Or List It and Mythbusters to Abandoned Engineering.

In related news, OTTera has hired Simon Tchokonté from Novocomedy as its new director of business development for Africa. The hire follows the company’s expansion into Latin America, China and the Middle East.