FAST Viewing Rises 70 Percent Year-on-Year

Tracking usage on VIZIO smart TVs, Inscape has found that FAST viewership rose by 70 percent year-on-year in Q2 amid a continued shift from cable and satellite to streaming in U.S. TV households.

Smart TV penetration has risen to 80 percent of U.S. TV homes, Inscape reports.

Streaming’s share of viewing has increased from 44.1 percent to 53.8 percent in Q2 since 2021, while cable and satellite’s share fell from 46.9 percent to 37.1 percent. In Q2, 5 percent of U.S. pay-TV households gave up their cable or satellite subscriptions, and 9 percent reduced their pay-TV viewing by 75 percent or more. In the same period, U.S. TV homes spent 54 percent of their viewing time on streaming, the report notes. Gaming and over-the-air viewing share remained relatively consistent during this time.

While pay-TV and over-the-air usage is slipping, it remains key for news and sports; they logged 76.9 percent of sports viewing time and 85.3 percent of news viewing time in Q2. FAST services saw an increase in viewing time by 70 percent, Inscape found.