FAST viewership skyrocketed from 2019 to 2021. Now that these services are relatively mainstream, growth has settled down. But FAST remains one of the top-growing subcategories within the OTT ecosystem.

FAST viewership surpassed 100 million last year

• Around one-third of the US population and 44% of OTT viewers will watch FAST services in 2024. Although the experience of watching FAST platforms is not entirely akin to watching traditional TV, the concept has found an eager audience in the US. The price is unbeatable (free!), particularly compared with traditional or digital pay TV, which FAST seeks to replace in some respects.

Roku leads, but Freevee is growing the quickest

• Most FAST services are available via any internet-connected screen, but Roku’s connected TV (CTV) leadership gives it an edge. Roku’s CTV devices and smart TV operating system are extremely popular and give users an immediate, frictionless way to watch The Roku Channel. This differentiates Roku from the otherwise very similar FAST services on the market and helps explain its viewership advantage.

• Amazon Freevee is growing quickly, but its future as a standalone service is uncertain. Freevee will increase its viewership by 13.2% this year, after a 28.0% increase last year. Like The Roku Channel, Freevee benefits from the traffic directed toward it by a popular smart TV device (Amazon Fire TV). Prime Video users also sometimes find themselves watching Freevee without realizing it. However, given the major AVOD push coming from Prime Video, Freevee might eventually be rolled into Prime. Due to this uncertainty, we are not projecting Freevee’s viewership past 2024 for now.

Read the full report, US OTT and Pay TV Viewership Forecast 2024.