Yesterday, Inscape released its look at the state of viewership using data from Vizio TVs. According to that report, free streaming services have seen their viewership jump by 70% in the 2nd quarter of 2023 vs. the same period in 2022.
“Free ad-supported streaming TV, or FASTs – which offer a free, easy entry experience across a wide variety of curated programming – continue to gain popularity among consumers. Considering that smart TV menus often put FAST services at viewers’ fingertips the second they press the power button it’s no surprise that FAST viewing time has increased by 70% in Q2 2023 compared to Q2 2022.” Inscape said in its study.
This news from Inscape comes as Nielsen released its State of Play report looking at the state of streaming and TV as a whole. In that report, Nielsen broke down the number of free live channels on services like Pluto TV, Xumo Play, The Roku Channe, Tubi, and more. According to Nielsen, there are 1,073 free channels in the United States, 206 in the U.K., Germany has 108 free channels, and other areas have 37. In total, that is 1,434 free live channels on these services.
The growth of high-quality content on free streaming services has helped drive up the number of Americans willing to use free service.
Most of these services average just a few hundred channels. Some channels may be on multiple services, but each service offers something special that the others do not have.
“Available to audiences via internet connection without a paid subscription, FAST channels are ad-supported, and they lean into a trend that isn’t discussed much in the industry press: the appeal of classic TV. Compared with traditional SVOD services, which typically offer a mix of high-profile originals and titles acquired from other sources, FAST channels are predominantly set up to showcase library content—programming that originally aired somewhere else (usually on traditional TV). ” Nielsen went on to say.
With over 1,000 options for live content, you can see why many are looking at services like Pluto TV, Tubi, Xumo Play.