It is no secret that the FAST market has expanded at an incredible rate over recent years, providing homes with more ways to stream content for free.
To put the growth into perspective, the number of FAST channels available in key markets, including the U.S., now exceeds 1,610. This is according to the latest report from Gracenote, which explains the number is almost double the number available less than two years ago, in mid-2023.
With so many FAST channels available, it should come as no surprise that the report indicates the varied selection of free ad-supported channels results in access to more than 178,000 unique programs, episodes and movies.
The U.S. appears to be leading the way in the FAST market, with the report noting that almost three-quarters of the total number of available FAST channels are available in the U.S.
In terms of content, and although Entertainment was found to be the most common FAST channel genre with 303 channels, the report found that the top three FAST genres consist of Sports, Reality and News/Commentary programming.
Sports has seen a healthy increase over the past year, more than doubling to 220 FAST channels. However, Reality is understood to be the fastest-growing FAST channel genre in general, racking up an impressive 626% increase since July 2024.
In real-world terms, this increase has resulted in the number of reality-based FAST channels growing from 19 to 138 since last July.
Due to the level of growth being experienced within the FAST sector, the report naturally recommends companies can position themselves for long-term success by better understanding the evolving FAST market and adapting to its surge in popularity.
“FAST is in many ways a unique service, but its lifeblood is still content,” said Tim Cutting, Chief Revenue Officer at Gracenote. “So, program-level metadata providing understanding of FAST content is more important than ever to audience engagement and advertising initiatives.”
In spite of the impressive level of growth over recent years, the recurring theme here is that the number of FAST channels is only likely to grow further over the years to come, and potentially at an even more rapid pace than we are seeing today.
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