FAST Channels Spread Fast in 2025 – How’s the Industry Doing?

With StreamTV Show 2025 just weeks away—and allrites shortlisted for Innovation in Content Delivery—it’s the perfect time to unpack the FAST channel phenomenon. In this first article of our new series, we explore what’s driving the momentum.

Here’s what you’ll learn:

1. Global Growth – From 100 channels in 2019 to 3,500+ today, FAST is going international with explosive growth in markets like Brazil, the U.K., and Germany.
   

2. Viewer Trends – Sports and reality TV dominate the charge, while classic reruns are no longer the main attraction.
   

3. Discovery Woes – With 1,600+ channels per platform, viewers are overwhelmed, and discovery is broken.
   

4. Metadata Crisis – Missing tags and images aren’t just annoying; they’re killing user experience and ad targeting.
   

5. AI to the Rescue – From real-time dubbing to more intelligent recommendations, AI is the engine behind FAST’s next leap.

Global Expansion of FAST Channels: From 2018 to 2025

FAST (Free Ad-Supported Streaming TV) has undergone a remarkable transformation since its early days as an unknown experimental model—a hybrid child of traditional TV and digital streaming.

Now, let’s dive into some impressive figures!

In 2019, the United States, FAST’s birthplace, hosted just over 100 unique channels. By April 2023, that number had risen to more than 1,600—a 16× increase in just four years, with renowned ad-supported platforms like Pluto TV, Samsung TV Plus, and The Roku Channel leading the way. In 2023 alone, the North American region accounted for over 50% of the roughly $8 billion in global FAST revenues.

From 2023 to early 2025, the total number of FAST channels globally increased by approximately 42%, with significant growth extending beyond North America into markets such as the U.K., Germany, and Canada. Europe captured around 17% ($1.36 billion) of global FAST revenues in 2023, and projections suggest this share will rise to about 22% ($3.74 billion) by 2029. The U.K. market hosted 643 unique FAST channels by late 2023, operated by 193 distinct channel owners. Moreover, the platforms launched an average of 40 new channels monthly.

Another rapidly growing FAST market is Brazil. The growth of the Latin American ad-supported streaming landscape was predicted during MIPCOM in 2024, and we at allrites previously discussed this in our article. According to Omdia's forecasts, Brazil is expected to become the third-largest FAST market globally by 2029, behind only the United States and the United Kingdom. Brazilian FAST revenues are projected to nearly triple from $119 million in 2024 to approximately $303 million by 2029. This rapid growth is primarily driven by increased viewer preference for free-to-air streaming channels such as Pluto TV and Samsung TV Plus, which have become popular among connected audiences.

Speaking of Samsung TV Plus, the platform recently positioned itself as a leader in the number of available FAST channels. By April 2025, Samsung TV Plus hosted nearly 700 channels in the U.S.—more than any competitor—and over 3,500 channels globally.

Interestingly, less than a year earlier in 2024, Statista reported that Samsung TV Plus was only ranked fifth in the U.S., with just 349 FAST channels available. The platform's impressive growth also extended to user engagement; it had 88 million monthly active users in 2024 and saw a further 30% year-over-year engagement boost in 2025. Additionally, on-demand library viewing hours jumped 177% year-over-year as Samsung expanded its content offerings with more shows and movies.

What People Watch on FAST Channels in 2025

While many initially viewed FAST channels primarily as a destination for older content and reruns, recent statistics show that viewing habits and platforms' content strategies have changed.

Only 13.4% of FAST content available today was produced before 1990, and just 30% was made before 2010. This means that a larger portion of the content shown on FAST is fresh-ish. High-profile, recognizable titles and beloved characters now feature prominently across various FAST platforms, showcasing content traditionally associated with premium cable and SVOD services.

The genre breakdown of FAST channels also reveals the diversity of content viewers now seek. Entertainment content, including talk shows, game shows, and other live studio-based programs, dominates with over 300 dedicated channels.

However, the real growth story has been within the sports and reality genres in recent years. Sports-oriented FAST channels surged by more than 105% between mid-2024 and February 2025, reaching 220 dedicated channels and accounting for 13.6% of the entire FAST channel market. Moreover, sports content has moved beyond highlights and recaps to include real-time streaming of live events. Notably, FOX offered a free livestream of Super Bowl LIX on its Tubi platform in February 2025, complementing traditional broadcasts and underscoring the role of FAST channels as legitimate destinations for marquee live events. 

Similarly, Roku's premium sports FAST channel, launched in August 2024, now broadcasts live MLB games, Formula 1 races, and original sports-themed programming. We have observed this trend for the past few years—platforms fiercely competing for exclusive sports rights, representing a significant investment with relatively low risk due to the opportunity to capture a dedicated audience of loyal fans and subscribers.

The rise of reality TV channels within the FAST space is even more striking. Between July 2024 and February 2025, the number of reality FAST channels grew by 626%, from just 19 to 138 channels in less than a year.

Overall, FAST content preferences haven’t changed significantly since our last discussion. FAST streaming emerged as a digital counterpart of traditional TV, mirroring its programming to reflect the consistent demand for sports, reality, and news.

Metadata Says It All – Or Does It?

For today’s article, we want to focus on an issue relatively new to the young FAST channel model, yet so old and casual for digital TV streaming overall, channel discovery. As we’ve seen above, the FAST market boomed in the U.S. and spread to other regions, with hundreds of different channels available across hybrid streaming platforms, connected TVs, and FAST channel providers.

This manifests in two intertwined problems—poor content discovery for viewers and limited ad targeting capabilities for marketers.

FAST Channel Discovery Challenge: Viewers’ Perspective

Viewers now face an overload: the average FAST service offers upwards of 1,600 channels and 178,000+ programs, compared to 1.7 million SVOD titles. In Nielsen’s January 2025 survey, 73% of respondents said they needed multiple streaming apps to find something to watch, and 48% had cancelled a service because they couldn’t locate content that interested them. That’s almost half!

Metadata deficiencies compound the issue. According to the Gracenote FAST Report 2025, many FAST channels lack even basic genre tags, making homepage navigation and browsing chaotic. At the program level, 31% of titles are missing genre information, 43% lack imagery (thumbnails/posters), and 58% have no audience ratings or maturity indicators, forcing users to click through blindly to decide if a show is right for them.

In other words, the absence of these basic information elements makes it extremely hard for viewers to determine whether they’re going to like a channel or its shows. The problem is more serious on FAST than SVOD—FAST is free, which means the decision for a user to give up and look for alternatives is almost immediate.

Blind Ad Targeting for Marketers

FAST’s entire revenue model hinges on ad monetization, yet insufficient metadata limits marketers’ ability to align campaigns with relevant titles and channels. In 2024, FAST ad spend reached $9.4 billion, with 75% of CTV ads bought programmatically, making rich, embedded metadata signals at bid time essential for precision targeting.

Simply put, relevancy benefits viewers and, as a result, advertisers, brands, and FAST channels. When advertisers buy ad spots on FAST channels, they rely heavily on metadata such as genre, mood (funny, serious), actors, and other descriptive information that defines what a viewer is watching.

Research from Gracenote found that when FAST channels included detailed metadata, advertisers had, on average, around 10 descriptive tags per show to guide their ad placements. In comparison, channels lacking this detailed metadata provided less than one descriptive tag per program.

This difference is critical: more metadata means advertisers can precisely target their ads to reach their desired audience. Precise targeting ensures viewers see relevant ads and can tolerate them more easily, marketers see higher returns on their advertising spend, and brands avoid the risk of showing ads alongside inappropriate or unrelated content.

Metadata sounds simple, huh? Yet it’s a blind spot in the digital streaming sector and an even bigger problem for the FAST ecosystem.

How AI Technology is Tackling FAST’s Metadata Problem

So, what’s the fix?

If metadata is the root of the problem and the key to better viewer experiences and more intelligent ad targeting, then someone (or something) has to step in and clean up the mess. And that’s where AI enters the picture.

Artificial intelligence has become the most promising tool for addressing the metadata crisis across FAST. Companies already use machine learning to analyse video files and automatically generate detailed metadata, from genre and mood to cast, visuals, and themes. This type of AI-driven enrichment doesn’t just tag content more accurately; it smooths the entire viewer journey. Users who scroll through FAST line-ups are no longer guessing what a channel offers—because the system knows how to recommend shows they’re more likely to enjoy. It’s the difference between being overwhelmed and being guided.

The same goes for advertisers. AI-generated metadata brings structure to an otherwise messy environment. Instead of relying on vague or missing information, ad buyers can access rich, consistent descriptors and more confidently match their campaigns to the right content. 

But AI’s role doesn’t stop at tags and ad targeting. The tech is also helping FAST platforms expand their global reach. In 2025, AI-Media and Lightning International launched a partnership to integrate live, burned-in captions across FAST channels in more than 50 languages. That means a show airing on a FAST channel in English can now be instantly accessible to a viewer in Korea or Brazil, with no need for traditional translation workflows. It’s fast, it’s scalable, and it’s inclusive.

And if that wasn’t futuristic enough, there’s also LEXI Voice—AI-generated real-time dubbing—no more waiting for audio tracks to be recorded in a studio. Now, shows can be voiced on the fly in multiple languages, helping FAST platforms cater to international viewers without ballooning their localization budgets.

Even content planning is getting the AI treatment. With enough data, machine learning models can predict which types of shows will perform best, when to launch a new channel, and what to retire before it starts dragging down engagement. Companies like Cineverse are already testing this kind of predictive programming, helping FAST operators make smarter decisions without playing the guessing game.

So yes, metadata still says it all, but AI is now helpful if used wisely. While metadata enrichment is a significant part of the puzzle, AI’s role in film and TV goes far beyond that. In our upcoming articles, we’ll look closer at how AI has progressed across the film industry, building on some of the topics we’ve already explored.

Let’s Discuss FAST at StreamTV Show 2025

That’s it for part one of our FAST 2025 series. If you’re heading to the StreamTV Show this June, come say hi. Our team will be there and will be happy to connect. And if you’re not attending, no worries—stay tuned right here as we unpack more of the big topics shaping FAST channels today: monetization models, programming strategies, international expansion, and yes, even more AI talk. See you in the next one.

About allrites

Located in Singapore and globally, allrites is a premier marketplace for buying and selling film, TV, and sports rights. We provide a vast catalog of Film and TV content, from major studios to independent producers, available in any language and genre. Our innovative licensing models, including allrites Content-as-a-Service, offer flexible and efficient content monetization and acquisition solutions, accommodating the evolving needs of content buyers and sellers worldwide.

Want to learn more about our content library, licensing models, or industry trends?

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