FAST viewership rises 21% in Q4 2025 amid continued growth in ad-supported streaming

Amagi reported that global free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) viewership increased 21% year over year in the fourth quarter of 2025, while ad impressions rose 27%, according to its March 2026 “Airtime Report: Special Edition – AI in Media Operations.”

The report analyzed roughly 4,200 FAST channel deliveries distributed through the company’s Thunderstorm server-side ad insertion platform. Overall, Amagi manages more than 9,000 channel deliveries, according to the company’s fiscal year 2025-26 third-quarter earnings call.

The analysis also found that media companies are increasingly integrating applied artificial intelligence into operational workflows across content production, localization, scheduling and monetization.

A survey of 50 broadcast and streaming executives evaluating 20 end-to-end content operations tasks identified the strongest potential for AI in high-volume workflows such as metadata enrichment, contextual tagging, subtitling and translation and social media publishing.

“The industry is entering a phase where AI is no longer just about experimentation — it’s about embedding intelligence directly into operational workflows,” said Srinivasan KA, co-founder and president of global business at Amagi. “Media companies that integrate applied AI across ingest, localization, scheduling and monetization will unlock meaningful gains in speed, efficiency and scalability.”

The report said AI can add the most value when it is embedded directly into media workflows, enabling automated quality control alerts, localization triggers, rights compliance checks and identification of monetization opportunities.

Regionally, FAST viewing growth remained strong across all major markets in the fourth quarter compared with the same period in 2024.

Latin America recorded 66% growth in hours of viewing and 77% growth in ad impressions. Asia-Pacific posted 23% growth in viewing hours and 43% growth in ad impressions, while Europe, the Middle East and Africa saw 22% viewing growth and a 43% increase in ad impressions.

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The United States and Canada posted 17% growth in viewing hours and 22% growth in ad impressions and continued to account for the largest share of global FAST viewing.

Entertainment and news remained the leading FAST channel genres globally. Channels launched after December 2024 generated 18% of global viewing hours and 16% of global ad impressions during the quarter, according to the report.

Amagi said the findings suggest applied AI could represent the next major operational shift for media companies as streaming distribution continues to mature.