The blockbuster genre of the FAST world: News

FAST impact on news

Gone are the days when news was limited to traditional cable TV. You had to be glued to your television set to catchup on the latest around you. With Free Ad-Supported Streaming TV (FAST) coming into picture, you now get to stay up to date with global TV news through any connected device. 

While how we consume news today has evolved completely, free ad-supported streaming TV helps mimic traditional cable television and powers a linear viewing experience. That’s the beauty of FAST!

The star genre of the FAST world: news

While free ad-supported streaming TV offers a wide variety of genres such as crime, movies, sports, documentaries and so on, news continues to be the most popular. Let’s take a look at how news fared over the years on FAST platforms. 

News’ share in ad impressions and HOV (Hours Of Viewing)
Topping the charts as the most popular and watched genre between Q1 2021 and Q2 2022, news enjoyed 32% and 30% of total hours of viewing and 31% and 35% of total ad impressions respectively. 

Here is a quick comparison of news with the other top three genres of Q2 2022. 

Source: Amagi Global FAST reports #4 & #5

News seems to be enjoying the numero uno spot for the past couple of years, but what fuels this status quo? Let’s find out.

Factors that make news #1 on FAST

The evergrowing demand for local content 
If you look at the viewership trends for some top local TV news channels in the US, the demand for local news continues to grow. Taking a cue from this, FAST channels are constantly working towards providing local and personalized news-viewing experiences. Apart from highly personalized news delivery, some other elements that help improve channel stickiness include high quality and localized reporting, familiar anchors and reporters and so on. 

Are you a local news channel looking for reasons to go FAST, read this.           

Live takes the cake   
Who doesn't like to stay on top of things happening around them? Precisely why live/breaking news has always been a star in the linear TV universe. Backed by state-of-the-art cloud technology, FAST platforms offer a high-quality news-viewing experience that helps drive good engagement and viewership. Another audience favorite here is – weather. Everyone likes to know in advance whether they need to carry an umbrella or not. This need makes hyper-localized live weather updates another in demand category.

Read more: How much live news content is needed?

One channel doesn’t fit all   
Gone are the days when you were forced to choose from very limited set of news channels. With FAST, you get to be spoilt for choice and choose news channels dedicated to specific genres such as sports, politics, entertainment, weather and so on. Some of the popular ones include O&O (Owned and Operated) channels of big broadcasting groups such as NBCU, Fox, ABC and CBS. 

Impeccable viewing experience for the win
How many times have you missed critical news because of bad weather conditions? While traditional cable TV continues to remain affected by rain and storm, FAST offers broadcast-grade, news despite it all. It goes without saying that news channels are incomplete without powerful graphics such as lower-thirds and tickers. These not only uplift the overall viewing experience but also provide critical information such as breaking news, weather updates, game scores and time.  

Each of these factors plays a significant role in making news the star genre. This trend is likely to continue and now is the time for you to make the most of it.   

Take your news channel to the next level with FAST. We can help.
Write to us at cloudandme@amagi.com.