The mechanism behind a 148% engagement jump, the state of the FAST market in data, and the two people who built Carousel
AI-produced programming is, for the first time, proving out a cost structure that FAST has never been able to solve. As two conditions converged — compute costs falling far enough, and content quality finally meeting consumer expectations — “original production,” long the preserve of the large SVODs, is moving quickly into ad-supported territory.
Jung Han
Free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) has hit a structural ceiling: viewing time keeps climbing while new-user growth stalls, and rising views no longer translate into rising ad revenue. With a large share of revenue accruing to the platforms, channel partners have steadily less to reinvest. Against that backdrop, AI-driven programming redefines the core cost variable of content production — the “denominator.” Fairground Entertainment’s Carousel is the first case to demonstrate the shift.