FAST continues to power ahead in Europe, says Amagi report

Broadcast and CTV solutions provider Amagi has released a new report on the state of the free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) space which confirms that year-on-year growth continues to outpace industry predictions. The sixth edition of its Global FAST Report reveals that growth in Q3 (Jul-Sep) 2022 compared to Q3 (Jul-Sep) 2021 in Europe saw an increase of 99.97% in ad impressions and 51% in viewing hours.

The availability of Connected TV (CTV) is a key marker of FAST channels adoption in a market and Amagi’s research shows that Western Europe with 70% CTV coverage is gaining ground on the US where coverage is about 80%. In Central and Eastern Europe, coverage is below 50% though this is still fuelling a huge FAST viewership spike of over 1,500% across these regions in Q3 2022 when compared to Q3 2021.

Srinivasan KA

The UK is the most advanced country in Europe when it comes to CTV adoption with rates as high as 85%. Combining findings from Amagi Analytics with UK-specific insights from a consumer survey, the Amagi team attributes the growth to three major factors: the higher cost of living driving audiences to cheaper or free sources of content which FAST readily offers; the ever-improving quality of content available on FAST platforms; and the entry of more prominent content brands into the FAST landscape.

Amagi’s research also confirmed that it is not just in the UK where such positive growth is happening. Looking at the increase in total hours of viewing, France with 120.77% and Italy with 111.54% both showed triple digit growth year on year. Analysing ad impressions, Italy tops the list followed by France, Spain, Austria and the Netherlands.

Srinivasan KA, co-founder & chief revenue officer, Amagi said: “We see FAST continuing to accelerate in a challenging environment, and we anticipate the trend to continue, making it an attractive time for content owners to get into this market.”