What Is FAST And Should I Be Furious? (another blog post which contains an acronym)

I have this theory that the more technologically advanced we have become, the more acronyms we have invented. So, I decided to test that theory by looking-up the oldest English language acronym. According to the good old Google, the oldest acronym in the English language is SCOTUS (Supreme Court of the United States). Sure enough, it was technology that started the whole thing. It was developed in 1879 as telegraphic code by one Walter P. Phillips for the United Press Association.

Moving to the 2020’s, technology has a literal stranglehold on the acronym world. It’s not even worth it to give examples of all the acronyms that technology has wrought upon us. Suffice it to say, it could become a course at one of our greater institutions of higher learning. I can see it now- just add “ology” to any of these Majors – Techn, Psych, Soci, Anthrop, put in a random number and description such as “202 – Use of Acronyms” and you’ve got a new course.

Which brings us to today’s Acronym – FAST (Free Advertiser Supported Television). This one didn’t even exist until 2019 and now, major corporations everywhere are jumping on the FAST train. FAST is sort of like a cable or satellite system with programming on multiple channels. The difference is it’s free, with plenty of commercial interruptions, and it is watched on a streaming platform. Unlike an over-the-air TV channel or a cable/satellite service, you've got to have an internet connection to watch FAST programming. So, you need either a third-party device such as a Roku or Firestick, “smart” television set with built-in applications or a device such as a cell phone, computer or tablet connected to the internet. Once you arrive at that FAST service channel, you have access to literally hundreds of programs either via a "live" guide or on-demand within that one application.

It was bound to happen. Think about how much TV and movie programming has come and gone through the years. Chances are all those old Dick Van Dyke, Dick Cavett or Dick Tracy shows were just sitting in some basement in the Hollywood Hills. Until home internet streaming became ubiquitous, all of that stuff was just collecting dust except when it was pulled-out for the occasional late-night Time-Life infomercial (remember those?), hawking the best of Johnny Carson. One day, somebody looked at all of that stuff in the basement and said, “There’s gold in them there Hills!” and that’s when FAST moved forward.

FAST services offer a wide variety of individual free channels with pre-programmed content, such as older movies and TV series, reruns of old talk shows, reality shows, cooking programs, network news channels and more. When you tune into a FAST Channel, it will look a lot like a cable or satellite service with its own viewer guide telling you what’s on each of its over 100 individual "live" channels or what you can watch on-demand. If a viewer wants to watch a particular show or film on a FAST channel, they will be interrupted by ad breaks, much like a traditional TV channel.

So here is where the “furious” comes in. Consumers are getting really angry. There are simply too many ways to spend too much money. The average monthly cost for a pay cable or satellite subscription is now well over $100 a month and that’s before adding premium channels like HBO, Showtime, Netflix, Hulu, Prime, Paramount Plus, Peacock, etc. This is causing a new American malady called, “Subscription Fatigue” which is leading to the rising phenomenon of cord-cutting. There is no doubt that Americans are getting tired over shelling out so much money every month for things that used to be if not free, at least more reasonably priced. No wonder more than 46 million U.S. households will likely cancel their cable/satellite TV subscriptions over the next two years and replace them with streaming services like FAST.

Even the big corporations understand that this environment is simply not sustainable. Companies like Pluto (owned by Viacom), Xumo (owned by Comcast) Tubi (owned by Fox), Freevee (owned by Amazon), Stirr (owned by Sinclair), Roku Channel (owned by device manufacturer Roku) and several others all started their own FAST service. It wasn’t very long after until the TV manufacturers themselves got into the game. Chances are if you own or buy a new, Smart TV, a FAST service will be available as a native application from the TV manufacturer such as Samsung TV+ or LG Channels. So, you can say that FAST is growing – fast. In fact, the FAST industry is experiencing exponential growth. Ad revenue has already reached 2.1 billion dollars and is projected to surpass a whopping 4.1 billion dollars in the coming years. But there is a cost...

FAST services do not offer what I would call top-tier programming. If you’re looking for bigtime sports, forget about it. While channels like Stadium Sports and beIN Sports Extra are available on many FAST services, as I write this, a high school basketball game is on Stadium Sports. At the same time on cable/satellite, there is a college bowl game on ESPN and an NFL game on the NFL Network. As for news, there are several offerings from the major networks on FAST such as ABC News Live, CBS News, NBC News Now and LiveNOW from Fox. However, at best, they offer news programs from “B” team anchors and often are simply places to watch reruns of “Good Morning America”, “The Today Show” or a repeat of a nightly network newscast. Channels like CNN, MSNBC and Fox News Channel are not available through a FAST service. Nor are local regional sports networks or most newer movies and TV shows.

On the other hand, if you want a large choice of some news and weather, older TV shows, movies, cooking and other reality programming, all for free, you should give one of the FAST services a try. For example, Pluto currently offers 106 channels with programming as current as “Yellowstone” to as old as “Three’s Company”. It also offers several movie channels. None of these movies are going to be anywhere near your local movie house or on HBO, but if you want to catch one of the “Mission Impossible” adventures, there are choices to be had. Also, some FAST services offer local channel newscasts. TUBI (owned by Fox) has 17 local Fox affiliates available. So, for example if there is a breaking story in Milwaukee, you can stream the latest news from WITI-TV.

There is no doubt that high-speed home internet has disrupted the way we consume TV. With virtually every major media company jumping into FAST, it’s only a matter of time before we see some of these services either merge or get eaten by another company. Simply put, there are too many free and subscription services out there. Something needs to change need I say, fast, because consumers are totally confused with so many choices for basically the same programming. After all, how many channels do we need to go to in order to hear Ed McMahon say, “Here’s Johnny!”