The proliferation of FAST offerings has led to widespread usage among U.S. consumers. While the share using FASTs has plateaued over the past couple of years, they are still reaching nearly two-thirds of U.S. TV viewers. And for individual FAST services, there remains considerable opportunity for growth. The Hub TV Churn Tracker identified nearly 40% of FAST viewers who reported trying a new channel in the previous month. At the same time, old-school broadcast antenna usage continues among one-third of TV consumers. Across FASTs and antenna, 7 in 10 viewers use a free TV source in a typical month, either streaming or over-the-air – more than one-third use a FAST only, 25% use both sources, and 1 in 10 uses an antenna only.
Also of note, viewers who use both free sources are demographically distinctive – they are more likely to be younger, Male, Black or Hispanic, Urban, lower income, and have children.
FAST viewers shell out for more SVOD subscriptions, and those who also view with an antenna use the most diverse array of video sources. More than 7 in 10 FAST users subscribe to 3 or more SVODs, and those who also use an antenna are more likely to subscribe to 3 or more outside the Big 5 of Netflix, Hulu, Max, Disney+, Amazon Prime Video. The free TV viewers using both FASTs and an antenna also far surpass other consumers in subscribing to premium cable channels. FAST viewers are also significantly more likely to use SVOD services with ads and without ads.
Given such high rates of SVOD and premium channel subscription, it’s pretty obvious the “free” in FAST isn’t likely a primary driver of usage for most of these consumers. It’s more probable these video omnivores are enjoying FASTs and over-the-air broadcast as two more sources they can add to their already robust TV menus.
The FAST+antenna viewers are much more likely than other viewers to use another person’s password to watch. As SVODs crack down on password sharing, and seeing the way the free viewers churn through TV services, Hub Intel suggested they will pay for a service if they can no longer piggyback on another subscription, but they may not be loyal to it long term. The labels “swappers” and “serial subscribers” accurately describe the FAST+antenna consumers. They are by far the most likely to have both added and dropped a service in the past month, and two-thirds of the adders were coming back to a service they had previously canceled.
Like nearly all viewers, free TV viewers are driven by content offerings when they add a service. But the FAST+antenna viewers are considerably more likely to be attracted by price promotions. With lots of subscriptions already, lower incomes and larger families, it makes sense these consumers are looking for bargains where they can find them. By the same token, these FAST+antenna viewers also cancel when they are no longer getting the value and use out of their TV subscriptions.
It would be easy to stereotype free viewers as people who don’t care about TV or cannot or will not spend to receive it. But the evidence shows the opposite — the free viewers clearly value TV content, and seek it out whenever and wherever they can. And they have plenty of paid subscriptions. The challenge for the streaming services is that these consumers are the most active “adders” and “droppers.” They are swapping out one subscription for another when they run out of content (or worse for the streamers, when a price promotion ends).
If streamers aren’t going to throw around production and marketing money, they will need creative solutions to attract and keep these restless subscribers. Services will need to ensure subscribers know about exciting new content through menus and recommendations, of course. But if they aren’t going to spend more on messaging, they’ll also need to develop more efficient marketing plans to reach subs off-platform.
For the FAST providers themselves, this may result in an advertising bonanza, provided they agree to sell to competitors. Targeting FAST users is one obvious means for streaming services to communicate with consumers most likely to add or return to a subscription.