• by Karlene Lukovitz  @KLmarketdaily, November 9, 2023

More than 1,600 free, ad-supported streaming services/FASTs are available in the U.S.

But just five — all owned by Paramount Global and its Pluto TV division — accounted for 21% of views or visits across the top 100 FAST channels in the U.S. in August.

That’s according to Omdia and Plum Research, which found that those channels — Pluto TV Spotlight, Star Trek, Pluto TV Action, Pluto TV Reaction and Pluto TV Comedy — also took the top five spots in number of views/visits to top FAST channels during June and July.

Omdia defines views/visits as the number of times a channel started playing — a very different metric than the total monthly U.S. time-spent-viewing one used by Nielsen for The Gauge, which currently shows three FAST platforms as a whole (Tubi, Pluto TV and The Roku Channel) as having reached 1% or greater shares of that total time.  

The five channels highlighted by Omdia are offering strong IP and particularly in-demand exclusive content — elements that will become increasingly important to compete going forward, notes Omdia.

Twenty FAST channels accounted for a whopping 47% of all FAST visits in August, although their combined share slipped slightly, from 49% in June and July.

“Content discoverability has become a vital tool for channel owners as the FAST ecosystem has mushroomed,” and will help drive accelerated consolidation in the market going forward, observed Rua Aguete, Omdia’s senior director in media and entertainment.

The number of channels is still rising. Samsung TV Plus, Pluto TV, Freevee and other major FASTs have all increased their content catalogs over the past year or so, although ViX and LG Channels saw slight reductions.