There Are Now 1,995 FAST Channels
FASTMaster analysis across 19 FAST services in the U.S. finds a new record number of FAST channels for December 2023
If you are like me, you’re a little bummed that we didn’t hit 2,000 FAST channels for the end of the year. That record will go to 2024 but it’s still an incredible number of channels that heralds the growth of FAST.
I would estimate that this means that the channel playout business in the U.S. alone is worth at least $10 million a month in delivery costs, with more for advertising etc.
Which reminds me. I updated my old U.S. FAST revenue forecasts. Unlike a service that may rhyme with Batista, I didn’t use AI to generate these estimates (many thanks to the eagle-eyed friend who shared the text that site left in their analysis to explain how their strange figures were being generated). Here’s mine:
I took into consideration the slowdown seen this year in ads (well actually I already revised my estimates for that) but boosted 2024 due to politics and then assume by 2025 that CPMs will be higher due to continued education efforts for advertisers to understand just what FAST is, who the audience is, and why it’s significantly undervalued for now. Then by 2027 I expect we’ll see another CPM increase as well as usage rates capping.
Back to the channels. A decent proportion of these are local news (230, accounting for 11.5% of viewing) but over half are in the general entertainment format and based upon TV content. 1,595 are in English, 277 in Spanish and 123 in other languages. Single-IP channels are at 328, or 17.2% of all channels.
There were 997 channels exclusive to one service, which proportionately is the second-lowest share ever. The 49.5% share seen in December has only been topped in September 2021 which was at 49%.
Channel Counts
Plex leads the channel counts with 535 available channels. Roku looks close to hit the 500 mark soon and I wouldn’t be surprised to see Freevee there either, especially with more MGM and WBD channels coming. Speaking of Warner Bros. Discovery, they launched their first single-IP channels on Freevee this month. With the library available, I don’t expect that to be the last.
At the other end of the list, STIRR continues to be on life-support and Peacock continues to selectively curate their channel list, adding Top Gear to that exclusive list. ABC continues that little FAST experiement Disney’s running by adding the first ever Freeform and ESPN FAST channels.
Just in case you want to focus in on this year:
And then if you were thinking “wow, I’d love to see just how it falls out for all Decembers” well guess who got you covered going back to 2019 for some of the services. Tell me you’re the FASTMaster without telling me you’re the FASTMaster.
When will the channel growth stop? Nobody knows!
Finally
The potential WBD-Paramount merger breathes new meaning into my note last week about rumors Pluto TV could be sold. Imagine WBD getting Pluto… with or without the CBS and Viacom content libraries, WBD is one of the only companies with a deep enough content library to make it work (plus you’re getting an asset with 25 million+ MAUs in the US, likely higher so it’s instant monetization). My FAST mind started to dream of the behemoth a WBD/Paramount-powered Pluto could be…
And on that note, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! Thank you for reading FASTMaster for another year. It’s been a fantastic year that I could never have imagined - who would have thought FAST would take me to Sydney, Seoul, Cannes, Ottawa, Denver, Los Angeles, Toronto, Chicago and Barcelona within a year? (And keynote at most of those events too). Thanks to everyone I met who was so welcoming and helped make me feel at home when I was alone in a foreign city, and to all the good friends I made on the way. Looking forward to seeing what 2024 will bring, and I hope it brings peace and prosperity to each of you.