The fast show

We’ll each spend 100 days of our lives trying to work out what to watch on TV or streaming platforms, per Gavin Bridge, Senior Media Analyst at Variety's VIP intelligence platform. Some may argue that estimate is undercooked by an order of magnitude. Either way Bridge reckons curated content is back in vogue as once vaunted content recommendation algorithms founder on the paradox of choice or “decision paralysis.”

The numbers coming out of the US market back that theory and Bridge thinks Australia’s FAST channels – free ad supported TV – could be set to mirror the US boom. He forecasts a $307m FAST advertising market within four years in Australia, citing data from consultancy Omdia. But laggard networks risk being left behind and missing “money left on the table”.

“There is $60 billion less being spent on US television advertising in 2023 than in 2016. FAST is therefore an opportunity for TV operators to recover some of these losses,” per Bridge. “And that is one of the reasons why most of the [major] US media companies now have a fast service," he added reeling off Fox, Paramount, NBCU, Comcast as the majors make both an offensive and defensive move agains the tech players and OEMs such as Plex, Roku, Samsung, Vizio, LG and Amazon. 

FAST channels won’t make up TVs $60bn hit, but they are predicted to generate $10bn in US ad revenues by 2027, circa 22 per cent CAGR since 2018, per Bridge

There are 1,628 FAST channels in the US market, he said, up from 502 channels in 2020. Australia currently has 389, and is “roughly four years behind the US” in terms of market maturity, according to Bridge. “But we’re just going to see that number growing in this country” given 57 per cent of households have smart TVs and 91 per cent of households are streaming on CTV he added.

FAST numbers:

• In Australia CTV platform Plex has the most FAST channels, sitting at 182
• Samsung has 96
• Seven has 53
• 10Play has 12
• Fetch has seven FAST channels
• Nine mooted plans to create FAST channels at its upfront in late 2022, but is yet to launch one.

Audiences, content, growth

In the US, four out of five FAST viewers are over 35, Bridge told the Future of TV Advertising conference in Sydney, with an 89 per cent increase in minutes viewed from Q3 2021 to late 2022.

In Australia, 61 per cent of available FAST channels show general entertainment, 10 per cent films, 11 per cent music, 11 per cent sports and six per cent news as of February 2023.

Samsung Ads boss Alex Spurzem said its Sky News channel had knocked Mythbusters off the number one spot across its 96 FAST channels and claimed 88 per cent growth in FAST channel viewing in the three months from December 22 to February 2023 versus the prior year. 

Remonetising content

In the US, networks are finding success with both multi-show FAST channels and dedicated single shows, with channels focused solely on programmes like The Office, Law and Order and The Walking Dead with low overheads for networks that can repurpose existing content. Single IP channels also give networks the chance to roll out another tier of sponsorships for dedicated spin-offs of tentpole franchises across genres such as reality, cooking and renovation.

Critics suggest much of the FAST viewing and revenue growth is coming from the bigger, more premium providers, such as Paramount's Pluto, which now has 78m subscribers, while arguing that the long tail offers a poor viewing experience and risks repeating the same mistakes as some TV markets in terms of ad loads, content and ad quality. 

Bridge said some US networks are now becoming pickier in what they choose to package within FAST channels and are starting to "cull content" that is underperforming – and said it was the major networks, with arguably better content to slice and dice, that have driven growth in recent years.

TV networks pushing into FAST must also weigh up the trade off between "re-monetising content" and cannibalising eyeballs.

But Bridge is convinced that for networks and content owners, “it’s just a good way to make money”.