NEW YORK—Despite rapid growth in recent years and worries that the FAST channel market may be reaching saturation, a new report from FASTMaster shows that the total number of unique FAST Channels available in May 2024 in the U.S. is 1,943. That marks a 13.1% increase from May 2023, with 225 added channels, and a 47.3% increase since May 2022, with 624 channels added.
The news genre is now the second-largest channel source by volume, with 19% of total volume, following general entertainment channels (based on TV content) accounting for 58% of total volume.
Overall, the report found that there are a total of 5,264 channels across 18 services with many unique channels being available on more than one platform.
“The domestic FAST space is definitely maturing,” explained Gavin Bridge, the author of the report. “As this report will show, the growth in available channels has begun to slow as the market approaches 2,000 unique channels across tracked services, but it still continues to grow month-to-month.”
The report also notes that Warner Bros. Discovery only entered FAST last year but has gone from being the fifth-largest General Entertainment FAST channel distributor in May 2023 (with 14 channels) to the largest in May 2024 (with 46), heralding a FAST future where entertainment brands utilize their content assets smartly to engage fans across all platforms.
The report also highlights that volume is growing faster than total channels, suggesting that services add fewer new first-time channels as the market matures. However, they are looking to established channels or channels from known brands to add to their line-ups.
The report also details the fastest-growing genres and the most distributed channels. It includes the total number of FAST Channels and the total volume of channels. Furthermore, it tracks a full listing of general entertainment channels, music, movies, sports, and news channels.
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