FAST executives say data, not more channels, will define the next phase

A panel of streaming and advertising executives at the StreamTV Show in Denver said the growth of free ad-supported streaming television, known as FAST, now depends less on adding channels and more on understanding the people watching them.

FAST channels are linear, ad-supported streams that viewers watch for free on devices and platforms such as Roku, Tubi, Pluto TV and Samsung TV Plus. The panel, titled “FAST Advertising Unleashed: Scale, Targeting & The Battle for Viewer Attention,” brought together programmers, a technology vendor and a platform operator to discuss how the format makes money and where it is headed.

A maturing market with clearer winners

Panelists noted the distribution side of FAST has begun to separate into tiers after several years in which platforms held similar audience shares.

“At this point now, there’s quite a bit of separation between the various distributors, and that has led to an era of more maturity in the ecosystem,” said Evan Bregman, general manager of streaming and direct-to-consumer at Tastemade.

Bregman said Roku captured the largest share of viewing, followed by Tubi, Pluto TV and Samsung, with remaining platforms splitting the rest. He said the largest distributors were also experimenting most with ways to package inventory and fund original content, a tactic he compared to earlier moves by YouTube to build premium advertising packages.

Too many channels, not enough discovery

Several panelists pointed to a growing number of channels as a problem for viewers trying to find something to watch.

Karl Meyer, chief revenue officer at Fuse Media, said channel counts on major platforms had climbed well beyond early projections.

“The promise we always had going to market was that at Samsung, we’d only go to 300 channels,” said Meyer, who previously spent nine years at Samsung. “You look up now and there’s 800 plus channels just on Samsung.”

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Meyer said the time viewers spend searching for content had grown to as much as 20 minutes, a figure he described as a particular challenge for smaller channels.

Sebastian Braun, CEO of 24i, said the number of channels was the most overhyped aspect of FAST and argued that adding more would not solve the format’s core problems.

“We don’t need more channels,” said Braun. “We need more precision about describing the viewer, understanding the viewer.”

Braun said his company supplies platforms with data intended to capture viewer intent rather than only demographic or behavioral information, then feeds that data into ad systems to fill open ad slots.

Eventizing content to draw audiences

Alia J. Daniels, co-founder and chief operating officer at Revry, an LGBTQ streaming network, said her company schedules original programming as appointment viewing to bring its audience to its FAST channel first.

Daniels cited the network’s competition series “King of Drag” as an example, releasing episodes on FAST at a set time before they appear elsewhere.

“We’ve eventized old school, the way that we would have that experience of, oh, I want to watch this show, it’s going to happen at this time,” said Daniels. She said the approach supports higher ad rates and that data from a partnership with 24i helps the network refine the viewing experience.

Measurement and the data debate

The panelists returned repeatedly to data and how advertising results are measured. Meyer said the range of measurement providers and currencies had become difficult to navigate.

“It really comes down to who you trust,” said Meyer. He said the volume of vendors making large claims risked diluting the value of measurement across the industry.

Ingrid Mariotti, vice president of business development for the Americas at Wurl, said audience intent and mindset were becoming as important as audience identity. She said the company uses artificial intelligence to analyze content at the scene level and match ads to the moment, citing Telemundo’s use of partial-screen ad units, sometimes called L-bars, during sports coverage as an example of placing ads without interrupting key moments.

News content on FAST represents high-value audience segment

“It does matter, mindset,” said Mariotti. She said scene-level analysis can also identify content that is safe for brands and open up audiences that advertisers might otherwise avoid, such as news.

YouTube as a channel, not a rival

Bregman said programmers should treat large platforms as additive rather than competing, and singled out YouTube.

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“It is no news to anybody today that YouTube is television,” said Bregman. He said Tastemade uploads long-form content to YouTube knowing most of it is watched on television screens, though the platform does not offer the inventory-sharing arrangements that FAST platforms provide.

Daniels said Revry treats YouTube as a full channel while also using short clips to drive viewers to its programming. She described splitting a stand-up comedy series into individual jokes and segments for the platform.

Defining a hit

Asked what counts as a hit when audiences are fragmented across thousands of channels, Bregman defined it in terms of cultural impact rather than raw numbers.

“You can also make a cultural impact on a niche audience that cares very deeply about the entertainment that you’ve created,” said Bregman. He named Tubi’s films and “Jury Duty” on Prime Video as recent examples of free or ad-supported titles that broke through.

Where the panel sees FAST in five years

Closing the session, panelists described a future built on shared data and common measurement standards.

Braun said he wanted to see the walled gardens of data open up so programmers could combine signals from multiple platforms into a single view of their audience. “Democratize the data,” he said.

Daniels said standardization across platforms would let the format deliver on its original promise.

“The idea was that you could combine what we know of television with the efficiency of digital,” she said.

Bregman framed the coming period as a divide between companies that hold useful first-party data and those that do not. He said closer cooperation between platforms and programmers would be needed to grow overall revenue.

“FAST has a legitimate shot of being a key part of people’s media diets in five years,” said Bregman.

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The author of this story moderated this panel at the StreamTV Show in Denver.