Streaming 2026: Why FAST viewership is growing faster than its revenue

Free Ad-Supported Streaming TV (FAST) is the fastest-growing segment in television — representing 6.1% of all TV viewing as of March 2026 and approaching Netflix in aggregate usage among viewers over 50. Yet advertising revenue has not kept pace with that growth. The bottleneck, according to both Amagi and Nielsen, is measurement.

In the recent edition of the Amagi AIRTIME webinar, Siva Natarajan, SVP Strategy and Corporate Development at Amagi, sat down with Brian Fuhrer, SVP Product Strategy and Thought Leadership at Nielsen, for a data-driven conversation on where FAST stands today, what’s holding monetization back, and what the industry needs to do to close the gap.

Key takeaways from the webinar:

• Nielsen’s latest data on FAST adoption, including a surprising comparison with Netflix that most industry reports miss entirely.
• Why cautious buyers default to inaction without standard measurement, and what Amagi and Nielsen are building together to change that.
• Brian Fuhrer’s honest answer on what FAST stands to lose if the industry doesn’t act, and why he’s still an optimist.
• How live sports is reshaping the FAST audience profile and creating a two-way promotional opportunity between linear and streaming.

Watch the full webinar right here.

Where does FAST actually sit in the broader television landscape right now?

Fuhrer: When we look at the television landscape over a five-year view, I don’t think anyone is surprised by the fact that cable has been slowly getting a little bit weaker from a usage perspective, and conversely, we see the increase in streaming. But a lot of that cable softness is really migrating over — especially to streaming, but also to FAST, and we’re going to talk about that.

The one thing I want to point out is that broadcast in general has remained much more robust than people realize. The shift has really been between cable and streaming. That’s the big part of what’s gone on.

When we look at FAST specifically — and I want to be really clear, we’re measuring at the platform level, which is really a blunt instrument compared to where we want to get — the adoption curve and the increase in usage is really something to pay attention to. And there’s been no real downturn since last August; the overall adoption curve just continues.

FAST represents 6.1% of television as of March 2026. If you think about rewinding five years, when it was just really an idea, that’s an extraordinary amount of viewing contributed on a monthly basis. Big opportunity, and an increasing one.

Viewership is growing, premium content is coming in — so why hasn’t the money caught up?

Fuhrer: When you think about where the rubber meets the road, it’s really in buying systems and how agencies buy media, and how they place their buys. What we have to do, collectively, is make that easier — make things flow through into the pipes in ways that they can use easily. It’s not fair to expect agencies and advertisers to take a full-time job just learning how to use this. They need this to flow into the lingua franca that they’re used to.

There are two big hurdles. One is technology, and the other is financial. The solutions that Nielsen has worked on with Amagi are extremely appealing from the standpoint of being able to get over that technology hurdle — integrating Nielsen’s measurement capabilities through the workflow, so it’s much more elegant and software-based rather than requiring separate hardware encoders for every feed. And on the financial side, we hear a lot that Nielsen prices will be way too high for people to consider. Let’s have a conversation, because we’re very anxious to inject some order into the chaos we see right now.

What does FAST actually lose if the industry doesn’t act on measurement?

Fuhrer: Honestly, I don’t have a lot of fear, and the reason is I’ve seen every time there’s an opportunity and a growth curve like this, an adoption curve like this — it’s kind of the laws of physics. Measurement and the business opportunity just follow along. The question is when.

The downside and the fear is that there’s all of this viewing going into an area that maybe doesn’t give the agency and advertiser the opportunity to interact with viewers in the best way possible. I want to make sure that we at Nielsen are doing our job to provide that granularity — to capitalize on reaching those viewers that we know are adopting these new platforms and FAST channels at a very rapid rate.

Do live sports influence anything on the measurement front?

Fuhrer: Sports is its own language in a lot of ways, its own business, and it’s just fascinating how everything is kind of cross-pollinating now. What we saw with Fox putting the Super Bowl on Tubi, and the impact that had — when these companies that have FAST channels put sports on, it’s a huge promotional opportunity for the platform.

What we’ve seen is that when sports are on a FAST platform, the viewing profile is different from that on the linear network. It extends the linear network to younger viewers — it’s not just a one-way relationship. It helps in both directions, as we see younger viewers come in. We’ve seen a lot of that with multi-platform companies really leveraging their streaming platforms. With sports, we think there’s a lot of opportunity for companies to work together and put content out in ways that make sense for their consumers — because consumers are ultimately making the choice here, and we see them adopting FAST very rapidly.

FAQ

What percentage of television does FAST represent in 2026?
According to Nielsen data presented in March 2026, FAST platforms represent 6.1% of total television viewing in aggregate across major platforms, including Pluto TV, The Roku Channel, Tubi, Samsung TV Plus, LG Channels, and others

How does FAST viewership compare to Netflix?
In aggregate, FAST platform usage is approaching Netflix from an overall usage standpoint. Among viewers over 50, aggregated FAST viewing has actually exceeded Netflix — a reflection of older cable audiences migrating to FAST as cable declines.

Why are advertisers not spending more on FAST despite growing viewership?
The primary barrier is measurement. Without standardized, channel-level measurement comparable to linear TV, advertisers lack the transparency they need to confidently allocate budget. Cautious buyers default to inaction, which means FAST ad spend has not kept pace with audience growth.

What is Nielsen and Amagi doing to solve FAST measurement?
Nielsen and Amagi have developed a software-based measurement integration that embeds Nielsen’s measurement capabilities directly into the content workflow — eliminating the need for hardware encoders at each feed. The goal is to move measurement from the platform level down to the individual FAST channel and program level, giving agencies and advertisers data in a format consistent with how they already buy linear TV.

Do live sports help FAST channels grow their audience?
Yes. Nielsen data shows that when sports content airs on FAST platforms, the viewing profile skews younger than on the linear network — with stronger 18–34 and 35–49 representation. This creates a two-directional benefit: sports drives new, younger viewers to FAST platforms, while FAST extends the reach of sports content beyond traditional linear audiences.

Want to know more?

Watch the full webinar to see Brian Fuhrer’s Nielsen data slides.

Contact our team to learn how Amagi’s measurement infrastructure can help your FAST channel attract premium advertising.