In just two years, Barcelona-based startup Love TV Channels has carved out a significant footprint in the crowded FAST landscape. By betting on hyper-specialized, localized content rather than broad entertainment, the company has expanded its portfolio to 19 channels and now reports an audience of over 20 million viewers per month across Europe, the US, Mexico, and Australia.
The company, which specializes in the production and distribution of thematic channels, has built its growth on a strategy of curation. Its portfolio includes brands such as Trailers, Love Wine, Love Travel & Taste, Love The Planet, and Love Crime & History. Additionally, the startup has successfully partnered with local publishers to translate print legacy into streaming assets, most notably launching the Historia y Vida channel in partnership with Grupo Godó.
‘We are publishers of localized FAST channels, and our focus is on the content’, commented Teresa Lopez, CEO and Co-Founder, while stated regarding its editorial philosophy on a recent interview. Unlike competitors that rely on bulk automated scheduling, Love TV Channels emphasizes human curation and dynamic programming with monthly highlights.
This approach has allowed them to secure rapid distribution with major CTV manufacturers, OTT platforms, and telco operators. The monetization strategy has followed suit, blending programmatic demand partners with direct deals. The company works with local brands related to their specific themes—such as travel or gastronomy—offering them the chance to ‘share their stories’ with segmented audiences, a move that yields higher CPMs and fill rates than standard inventory.
Despite the rapid growth, the company highlights two major systemic hurdles facing the European FAST market: data transparency and content discovery.
Love TV Channels describes the current analytics landscape as fragmented, with different platforms providing different metrics. Crucially, publishers often lack context on how their channels perform relative to the competition. ‘About performance of our channels within the FAST platforms… we get very little information’, assured Lopez. ‘This situation makes it very challenging to take informed content decisions’.
Furthermore, as platform EPGs swell to include hundreds of channels, visibility is becoming a critical issue. The company argues that without better platform tools to help viewers find specific genres, engagement risks stagnation.
Outlook for the European market
Looking ahead, Love TV Channels identifies the role of hardware manufacturers (OEMs) as the catalyst for the next phase of growth. The company argues that TV manufacturers must actively promote the availability of FAST options to mainstream viewers.
According to the startup, this push is essential to complete the ecosystem’s virtuous cycle: increased viewership will drive the shift of advertisers from traditional broadcasting to Connected TV, ultimately funding ‘further investment in content and the improvement of the FAST content offering’.
