US FAST industry to exceed US$4 billion in value by 2023

The US free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) industry is set to almost double in size in the next two years.

According to a new report from nScreenMedia, ad revenue earned by virtual linear (vLinear) channels will increase from US$2.1 billion in 2021 to US$4.1 billion in 2023. 

In addition, the number of active users of services such as PlutoTV and Samsung TV Plus will similarly increase to 216 million per month. 

The report goes into more details about the nature of consumer experiences of FAST services, finding that ads occupy between 13 and 14 minutes per hour, ad breaks occurred every 6 to 9 minutes, with 3 to 6 ads per break, and that FAST viewers report spending as much as 20 minutes per day with the services.

White paper author Colin Dixon, founder and chief analyst at nScreenMedia, said: “There was a time when many forecast the death of linear TV viewing. However, it is now clear that the format continues to deliver value to viewers. The FAST market has just begun a long period of rapid expansion.”