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By Jon Lafayette
Source: www.nexttv.com, January 2024

Vizio, Adelaide research finds FAST outperforms traditional linear by 35%-40%

Viewers may not pay for free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) channels, but they appear to be paying attention, according to a new report from smart TV maker Vizio and attention research company Adelaide.

The report found that FAST channels topped overall connected TV attention benchmarks by 20% to 25%.

FAST channels did even better compared to traditional TV channels, outperforming linear by 35% to 40%.

Attention has become a popular way to determine how closely viewers will watch commercials and how effective the ads in a program will be.

“These findings disprove the narrative of inattention or lesser value in FAST environments,” Devin Fallon, senior director, media insights & analytics at Vizio, said. “As subscription fatigue sets in, viewers are increasingly augmenting their streaming bundles with free services, and this ensures advertisers that FAST environments can drive both upper and lower funnel ROI.”

Additionally, the report found that FAST AU benchmarks are on par with the biggest AVOD and vMVPD apps by volume.

For the analysis, Vizio and Adelaide looked at a group of the highest volume apps across the FAST, AVOD, virtual multichannel video programming distributor (vMVPD, and linear TV environments.

“As CTV advertising grows, quantifying the quality of ad inventory with research-based measurement will be key for publishers and we’re happy to help forward-thinking networks like Vizio in this effort,” Adelaide CEO Marc Guldimann said.

Adelaide’s uses TVision’s panel to build its attention metric.

Adelaide combines the TVision data with attributed upper- and lower-funnel outcomes to calculate attention in TV environments.

Jon Lafayette
Jon Lafayette

Jon has been business editor of Broadcasting+Cable since 2010. He focuses on revenue-generating activities, including advertising and distribution, as well as executive intrigue and merger and acquisition activity. Just about any story is fair game, if a dollar sign can make its way into the article. Before B+C, Jon covered the industry for TVWeek, Cable World, Electronic Media, Advertising Age and The New York Post. A native New Yorker, Jon is hiding in plain sight in the suburbs of Chicago.