FAST platforms are on the rise. How can they keep up the momentum?

In 2023, during the fourth quarter of Fox’s Super Bowl telecast, Tubi — the free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) service owned by Fox — launched a clever 15-second ad spot that caused viewers to frantically check their remotes. The ad made it seem as if someone was changing the channel during the climax of the Big Game. Whatever anxiety was caused by the “Interface Interruption” ad, it certainly put the spotlight on Tubi.

Since then, the FAST space has only been on the rise. Nielsen said in a recent report that Tubi and The Roku Channel, another FAST platform, both saw “significant year-over-year growth” in TV usage in the U.S., with the former up 43% and the latter up 36% from May 2023.

Nielsen also recently said that time spent on Tubi grew 5% in May from the previous month, accounting for a platform-best 1.8% of streaming viewership in the U.S. in May. Both Tubi and The Roku Channel were ahead of subscription video platforms Max, Peacock and Paramount+ in that regard. Tubi, The Roku Channel and Paramount-owned Pluto TV accounted for a combined 4.1% share of TV usage for the month.

Zooming out, FAST has been gaining momentum as subscription-based streamers like Netflix and Disney+ introduced advertising-supported plans. Users still have to pay for a subscription to those, albeit cheaper than the ad-free versions, while FAST platforms are free to use.

“People only have so much appetite for subscriptions, so FAST will continue to grow until people have completely moved from linear to streaming,” says Dave Dembowski, SVP of global sales at Operative.

But while FAST has quickly found footing over the last year, experts The Current spoke with expect big changes in the year to come.

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