"The Results Have Been Amazing": Inside Fairground Entertainment's Bet on AI-Hosted Television

Fairground Entertainment last week announced the wide launch of Carousel, an AI platform that produces fully-hosted, avatar-driven television programming for streaming platforms. Its first major deployment, a partnership with European FAST operator Love TV Channels, produced a 148% surge in viewer engagement over seven months. We spoke separately with Fairground founder and CEO Colin Petrie-Norris — who previously created Xumo, one of the first major FAST platforms — and Love TV Channels co-founder and CEO Teresa López about what that number means, why the timing is right, and what comes next.

Colin Petrie-Norris, Founder & CEO, Fairground Entertainment

The case for AI-hosted programming has been made before — it just never penciled out economically. What specifically changed?

It's been a combination of needing the right economics for ad-supported services in particular - but also for the quality to be good enough for consumers. We've reached both of those points. Compute costs have reached a point where it makes sense, but we can make the product appealing and useful as well.

Carousel launches squarely focused on FAST — but the format you've built seems like it has a natural next life as a hosted intro layer inside AVOD and SVOD platforms. Is that on the roadmap, and how soon?

You're right - it works in just about every environment - but FAST as I'm sure you know is close to my heart. There is so much good content available to enjoy on the big platforms, and FAST channels have incredible libraries - but consumers struggle to find it. When you can utilize new techniques like Carousel to connect people to content better it's a win-win.

You built Xumo from scratch into one of the defining early FAST platforms. Looking at what Carousel enables now — what would you have done differently back then if this had existed?

Even with a large FAST platform, or ad-supported service, it has been sometimes difficult to justify the economics of making original content. This has up until now been the domain of the big SVODs. Now, with services like Carousel, it is leveling the playing field - allowing ad supported services to do things unique for their customers, to build (and refine) offerings that resonate with their particular audiences... I think this is the start of an entirely new generation of content and I find that VERY exciting.

Teresa López, Co-founder & CEO, Love TV Channels

Love TV Channels took a real risk being the first mover on this. What was the moment you decided the technology was ready — and what would failure have looked like for you?

Our TV channels Trailers was originally designed to be a window into the latest releases in film and series, helping audiences discover upcoming content in a clear and engaging way. At some point, we saw an opportunity to create a periodic program that would evolve the format beyond a trailer showcase and give it more personality.

That is where the idea for Check Them Out came from: a curated countdown with a narrator guiding the viewer through the latest releases. Fairground Entertainment helped make this concept possible in a very innovative and scalable way. For us, AI-powered technology was the best option because it allowed us to create a program driven by an AI host resulting in a more narrative and engaging experience, in an efficient way. 

Failure, for us, would have meant a lack of engagement. This first season was very much a test: we wanted to see how the audience would react to a new format and to an AI-generated host.

The results have been amazing, and we are very happy with how it has performed.

That is why we are already producing a second season and hopefully expanding the format into new territories and increasing frequency very soon.

148% is a striking number. But what does it actually translate to for Love TV Channels in business terms — ad revenue, platform carriage deals, subscriber retention?

This growth is very meaningful for us because it shows that more people are watching the TV channel and engaging with the content. It is clear proof that viewers respond positively to curated, personality-driven formats. 

From a business perspective, higher viewership also means more advertising inventory available to monetize. At the same time, it is opening up new opportunities with content partners and streaming platforms that are interested in a similar format to help improve the discoverability of their own content.

From a strategic point of view, Check Them Out is a key business case showing that we can produce content with AI in an efficient way while increasing engagement of our channels and we can apply to the rest of our TV channel portfolio.

Love TV Channels is distributing across Western Europe. There's a lot of regulatory noise around AI-generated content in Europe right now. Has that created friction, or does an AI-hosted discovery format actually fit your mandate better than people assume?

Regulation around AI-generated content is still under discussion, but we decided to anticipate what seems to be the direction of future regulation: transparency with viewers on AI-generated content.

Any other noise we feel it’s just noise, as the audience has shown great reception of the program Check Them Out and its AI host. 

Fairground Entertainment's Carousel platform is available now for streaming platforms, OEMs, and content brands. More at fairground.tv. Love TV Channels distributes across Samsung TV+, Titan OS, Amazon, and other European CTV platforms. More at lovetvchannels.com.