Streamers have more free, ad-supported streaming television (FAST) channel options now than ever before, and the number of programming available to them on linear streaming channels is in the hundreds of thousands, according to a new report released by Nielsen’s Gracenote on Wednesday.
The 2025 Gracenote FAST Report concludes the number of free streaming channels in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany and Canada is now 1,610 — nearly twice the number of FAST content streams available to TV and film buffs compared to mid-2023.
In total, more than 178,000 unique programs, movies and TV episodes are running on FAST channels in the four countries, Gracenote reports — and the content airing on FAST channels are not merely re-runs of classic series.
More than two-thirds of shows and movies streamed on linear FAST channels were produced from 2010 onward, Gracenote says. The top three content genres are news, reality programs and sports are the top three genres on FAST platforms, and reality programs in particular are increasing on channels, with 138 FAST content streams now offering reality-based series, up from 19 just two years ago.
Still, nothing beats general entertainment, which Gracenote defines as “TV programs that are presented in a non-story-based format and usually filmed live in a studio.” More than 300 channels are rebroadcasting general entertaiment shows on a regular basis.
”FAST is in many ways a unique service, but its lifeblood is still content,” Tim Cutting, the Chief Revenue Officer at Gracenote, said in a statement. “So, program-level metadata providing understanding of FAST content is more important than ever to audience engagement and advertising initiatives.”
Consumers are gravitating to FAST for a number of reasons: As the name implies, the content is free to access, and typically supplemented by advertising. TV and film fans are more than willing to overlook ad interruptions if it means they have low-cost access to shows and movies, especially at a time when subscription video costs are rising.
Around 40 percent of American consumers say they’ve canceled at least one streaming service in the past six months, according to Deloitte’s Digital Media Trends survey. More than a third of consumers surveyed by Deloitte said the TV shows and films available on subscription streaming services weren’t worth the money.
But when no money is exchanging hands, streamers are likely to stick around. According to Nielsen’s The Gauge report — which evaluates time spent with TV in American households on a monthly basis — Fox-owned Tubi and The Roku Channel have grown to account for more TV usage compared to Peacock, Paramount Plus and Max.
The leading three FAST services — Tubi, The Roku Channel and Pluto TV — have all grown their share of TV usage since 2022. But Tubi in particular has seen explosive adoption over the past few years, with nearly 15 percent of American adults saying they regularly watched Tubi during the first half of 2024. By comparison, just under 9 percent of American adults affirmed the same two years earlier.
The Roku Channel — which is installed by default on all modern Roku streaming players and smart TVs — was eclipsed by Tubi between the second half of 2023 and the first half of 2024, but it also had a strong head start, with around 12 percent of Americans using the service on a regular basis three years ago and nearly 14 percent of Americans saying the same last year.
The thousands of options available on FAST services pose one interesting problem: There is a lot to watch, and wading through all those shows and movies can be a daunting task. The 178,000 content options available on FAST services is slightly more than one-tenth of the 1.7 million shows, movies, documentaries and other video content available on all streaming platforms as categorized by Gracenote.
“As a result of the breadth of choice, the more-likely frustration among audiences is the difficulty in finding something to watch — a byproduct of a TV landscape that has become extremely vast and largely self-serving,” Gracenote concluded in its report.
Most streaming services are incorporating some kind of personalized content recommendation feature that utilizes a mixture of a customer’s watch history blended with their bookmarks or watch lists, along with other elements. Gracenote says one “leading global streaming service” reported a 11.2 percent increase in hours watched and a 7.7 percent increase in programs watched per user when it integrated the company’s Personalized Imagery into their platform. (Gracenote did not name the client, but a draft copy of the report that was reviewed by The Desk this week included a still frame promoting the Freevee show “Jury Duty,” suggesting it was Amazon.)
It isn’t just streamers that are taking note of FAST content: Advertisers are, too. Executives at Fox already have plans to make Tubi a focal point of their Upfront presentation next month; Amazon, Paramount and Roku have done the same with their FAST platforms over the past few years.
Companies are optimistic by affirmations from marketers that they plan to increase their spending against connected TV (CTV) platforms this year — in fact, 53 percent of marketers said as much when surveyed by Nielsen last year. But 57 percent believe CTV is ineffective in reaching their customers or otherwise achieving their marketing goals. Gracenote says programmers and content distributors can address some of those concerns by shifting its targeting “to content instead of people.”
That can be better effectuated if programmers and distributors not only used a metadata solution — Gracenote would be more than happy to provide them with one — but also categorized their shows, movies, sports and news differently than they have in the past. For instance, listing TV shows and movies across multiple genres — instead of just one — can boost the recommendation of that content to streamers and help CTV advertisers better target certain audiences by opening up their campaign to more biddable categories.
The full report from Gracenote is available to view for free by clicking or tapping here.
