The latest report on the state of the free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) by broadcast and connected TV SaaS tech provider Amagi has confirmed that year-on-year growth in the sector is continuing to outpace industry predictions.
The sixth edition of the Quarterly Global FAST Report aggregated data from the company’s proprietary viewership and ad analytics platform, Amagi Analytics, which brings together data and insights from over 50 platforms and over 2,000 channels that run on Amagi’s SSAI platform, Amagi Thunderstorm. The findings are further supplemented by data gathered from the Amagi Consumer Survey October 2022 – an online survey of ~600 UK households who watched TV at least once in the previous week.
Analysing the overall findings of its report, Amagi attributed growth to three major factors: the higher cost of living driving audiences to cheaper or free sources of high-quality content which FAST readily offers; the ever-improving quality of content available on FAST platforms; and the entry of more prominent content brands into the FAST landscape.
The study revealed that growth in Q3 (Jul-Sep) 2022 compared with Q3 (Jul-Sep) 2021 in Europe saw an increase of 99.97% in ad impressions and over 51% in hours of viewing.
The availability of connected TV (CTV) was found to be a key marker of FAST channels adoption in a market and Western Europe with 70% CTV coverage was gaining ground on the US whose coverage is about 80%. In Central and Eastern Europe, this figure stood below 50% though this was still fuelling a huge FAST viewership spike of over 1,500% across these regions in Q3 2022 when compared with Q3 2021.
The UK was found to be the most advanced country when it comes to CTV adoption with rates as high as around 85%, making it possible to reach almost 94% of internet users via connected devices. The data showed between Q3 2022 and Q3 2021, the total hours of viewing grew by 37.44%, while ad impressions saw an impressive 60.80% rise.
Looking at the increase in total hours of viewing for the Top 7 European countries, France and Italy both showed triple digit growth in Q3 2022 over the same period in 2021, 120.77% and 111.54% respectively. Analysing ad impressions, for the same period Italy topped the list with 501.98% year-on-year growth; France was second at 312.66%; Spain 260.06%; Austria at 124.23%; and the Netherlands at 106.23%.
“Recent global events have contributed to a difficult economic climate in Europe and across the world. Against this backdrop, the FAST sector has displayed the type of strong performance our Global FAST Report Edition 5 had predicted,” said Srinivasan KA, co-founder and chief revenue officer, Amagi. “We see FAST continuing to accelerate in a challenging macro environment, and we anticipate the trend to continue, making it an attractive time for content owners to get into this market.”
Analysing the overall findings of its report, Amagi attributed growth to three major factors: the higher cost of living driving audiences to cheaper or free sources of high-quality content which FAST readily offers; the ever-improving quality of content available on FAST platforms; and the entry of more prominent content brands into the FAST landscape.
The study revealed that growth in Q3 (Jul-Sep) 2022 compared with Q3 (Jul-Sep) 2021 in Europe saw an increase of 99.97% in ad impressions and over 51% in hours of viewing.
The availability of connected TV (CTV) was found to be a key marker of FAST channels adoption in a market and Western Europe with 70% CTV coverage was gaining ground on the US whose coverage is about 80%. In Central and Eastern Europe, this figure stood below 50% though this was still fuelling a huge FAST viewership spike of over 1,500% across these regions in Q3 2022 when compared with Q3 2021.
The UK was found to be the most advanced country when it comes to CTV adoption with rates as high as around 85%, making it possible to reach almost 94% of internet users via connected devices. The data showed between Q3 2022 and Q3 2021, the total hours of viewing grew by 37.44%, while ad impressions saw an impressive 60.80% rise.
Looking at the increase in total hours of viewing for the Top 7 European countries, France and Italy both showed triple digit growth in Q3 2022 over the same period in 2021, 120.77% and 111.54% respectively. Analysing ad impressions, for the same period Italy topped the list with 501.98% year-on-year growth; France was second at 312.66%; Spain 260.06%; Austria at 124.23%; and the Netherlands at 106.23%.
“Recent global events have contributed to a difficult economic climate in Europe and across the world. Against this backdrop, the FAST sector has displayed the type of strong performance our Global FAST Report Edition 5 had predicted,” said Srinivasan KA, co-founder and chief revenue officer, Amagi. “We see FAST continuing to accelerate in a challenging macro environment, and we anticipate the trend to continue, making it an attractive time for content owners to get into this market.”
