Two in three (66 percent) U.S. television viewers use free, ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) platforms in a typical month, according to Horowitz Research’s annual report. State of Media, Entertainment and Technology: Viewing Behavior 2024. Tubi, Pluto TV, Freevee, YouTube and Roku are the FAST networks most commonly used by consumers surveyed in the study.

The report, which tracks the evolution of the pay and free TV, streaming, internet and mobile environments, shows the impact of the introduction of FAST services on the TV ecosystem. On the one hand, more than half (53 percent) of FAST users say they “reduced” their paid streaming services after adopting FAST. On the other hand, 43 percent of FAST users tell us they “subscribed to a paid service” to continue watching a show they started on a FAST channel. This data underlines the important opportunity to use FAST strategically, with smart windowing and content promotion strategies.

In fact, Horowitz’s study finds that the relaxed experience of channel surfing has been sorely missed by consumers who have given up cable and relied solely on on-demand streaming options. Over 7 in 10 (73 percent) FAST users agree that watching TV is more fun now that they can tune in to these free services and watch whatever is on. Particularly among cable TV users who no longer have a cable or satellite subscription, nearly 6 in 10 (58 percent) say free services are like cable TV.

“As the FAST space matures, it actually feels like a corrective to many of the problems that on-demand streaming has created for both consumers and the industry,” notes Adriana Waterston, EVP and Insights & Strategy Lead at Horowitz Research, a division of M/A/R/C Research. “On the consumer side, FAST helps mitigate the challenges of on-demand TV, where consumers had to work pretty hard to find content to watch every time they sat down in front of the TV – not exactly the most relaxing TV viewing experience. It also creates opportunities to generate both advertising revenue and syndication revenue, which will help rebalance the business model.”