According to a recent study by the consulting firm Deloitte, half of all major streaming services will introduce a so-called FAST channel by the end of 2024 in addition to paid subscriptions. Channels are television offers that can be viewed via an open Internet site.
The abbreviation FAST stands for “Free Ad-supported Streaming Television”. It is about a streaming offer for which the user does not have to pay any money, but which is financed with advertising. As a rule, it runs linearly, i.e. in the classic way according to a fixed plan. The study predicts that by 2030 all streaming services will be wholly or mostly ad-supported. Prominent examples of this trend include the new Amazon Freevee offering and Netflix’s decision to create a cheaper streaming service with advertising.
The fact that freely available, advertising-financed TV channels that can be received via the Internet could be the future was also made clear at the C21 Content London conference. The head of content at the television company ProSiebenSat.1, Henrik Pabst, explained at the international industry meeting that his broadcasting group focuses on advertising-financed online content: “With Joyn, we have the largest free-to-air platform in Germany.” At Joyn there are live streams from numerous broadcasters, such as ARD. In addition to the advertising-financed free content, there is also paid content.
The German platform waipu.tv operated by Exaring AG also offers a wide range of more than 75 free channels. “The FAST market in Germany has experienced a maturing process in recent months,” said the CEO of the corporation, Bettina Bellmer, of the dpa. “Quantity is increasingly giving way to quality.” The young target group in particular, which has turned away from classic television, would watch linear TV again online. Bellmer is certain that a development similar to that in the USA will take place in Germany, because such offers have already started to triumph there.
Fox Entertainment’s Tubi platform, for example, is used by 56 million people a month but is not yet accessible in Europe. Tubi program director Adam Lewinson recently explained that television has always been a free, ad-supported model: “For the past few years, there has been a perception that the future of TV would be behind a paywall. I believe that the future of television will be free , ad-supported and a mix of linear and on-demand content.” The more than 100 television streams of the Paramount portal Pluto TV can be accessed in Germany.
Netflix shares were down 2.25 percent at $305.56 in trading on the NASDAQ on Tuesday.
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