How FAST Channels fixed a major streaming flaw

Published: October 3, 2024

How FAST Channels fixed a major streaming flaw

By Movieguide® staff

Free Ad-Supported Television (FAST) has become a major player in the entertainment industry by solving the problem of choice paralysis that plagues streaming platforms as their libraries grow.

Anyone who has ever used a streaming platform has felt how difficult it is to choose which show or movie to watch when there are thousands to choose from. This can lead to hours of searching as the viewer searches for the perfect show or movie – but ultimately never actually finds it.

While streaming initially became popular because it offered consumers a choice of content not available on cable television, this feature has now become a detriment. This is where FAST Channels come into play, giving consumers the ability to choose the general content they want to watch while eliminating the choice paralysis that comes with thousands of titles available.

FAST channels have become increasingly popular in recent years, even surpassing some major streamers like Max and Paramount+ in TV usage. They also have the added benefit of being free, which is a significant draw as streamers continue to raise prices.

However, these channels are not only lucrative for consumers, but also offer significant advantages for retailers. FAST channels are incredibly cheap to operate, costing just $1,500 per month, compared to linear television, which costs hundreds of thousands of dollars per year to operate.

“Assuming you have some content – and a lot of the people who run these channels own content – then your initial economics become very attractive, assuming you can sell the advertising,” said Guy Bisson, an analyst at Ampere. “You can run a channel very cheaply and make a profitable business out of it in a way that simply wouldn’t have been possible before streaming came along.”

However, the cheap entry point has become a major problem as hundreds of FAST channels pop up every year, creating a saturated market that could once again lead to choice paralysis – the problem they need to solve. However, the industry believes that a major wipeout is imminent and the number of available FAST channels will decline dramatically in the coming years.

“One of the reasons for these FAST channels for library content is that they can be a solution to the paradox of choice,” said Adriana Waterson, executive vice president of insights and strategy lead at Horowitz Research. “But I don’t think you solve the choice paradox by creating a new choice paradox with 1,000 FAST channels to choose from.”

“The FAST environment is not infinite, as much as people would like to think they can just start a channel and get it running,” Waterson added. “There will be natural selection there. There will be a cut.”

Movieguide® previously reported:

While free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) is more popular than ever, with over 1,500 channels in total, experts believe this growth is unsustainable and the industry is facing a significant decline.

“[FAST has] “I’ve been in this growth phase and now we’re at or close to the point where we’re moving to optimization… I think we’re going to see channel culling in the next 12 to 18 months,” said Sam Harowitz, vice president for content acquisition and partnerships at Fox Corp. “It will no longer be cost effective to maintain and launch channels.”

There are currently over 1,500 channels on the FAST marketplace. Harowitz predicts it will soon drop to 1,000 channels.

While a 33% cut is typically considered bad for an industry, in this case it could help FAST channels, as the crippling number of choices currently available was one of the problems the FAST model was designed to combat.