DATA · K-FAST 16 indicators extracted from the KOBACO study… USD 16.5bn for 2029 against USD 11bn for 2030, with 8 charts and 6 tables
The Korea Broadcast Advertising Corporation's study A Study on Promoting the K-FAST (Free Ad-supported Streaming TV) Ecosystem puts global FAST revenue at USD 16.5bn (approx. KRW 22.3tn) by 2029, citing Digital TV Research (2024). Omdia values the same market at USD 11bn by 2030. The two are a year apart and differ by close to 50%.
The forecasts diverge because each house draws the boundary of FAST differently. Counting only ad-supported linear channels produces one number; including the free on-demand catalogue sitting inside the same platforms produces another. The report reports the same problem at home: with no accumulated data on domestic market size, viewing behaviour or advertising effect, it had to rely substantially on forecasts, and it identifies the industry practice of not disclosing standalone FAST results as a further obstacle to reading the market.
This document breaks the figures scattered across those 123 pages into individual indicators carrying value, unit, period and source. It covers 76 of them, spanning market size, viewing behaviour, platform results, advertising rates, acquisition prices and media tech metrics, with a reliability tier attached so that company disclosures can be told apart from estimates.
1. Market size… USD 16.5bn by 2029, with a 50% gap between houses
Global FAST revenue started from USD 7.6bn in 2023, and users are projected to pass 1.1bn by 2027 (Amagi and Omdia, 2024). North America once took more than 70% of global revenue; Europe is now forecast to grow at 15.7% a year between 2023 and 2030 (KBV Research, 2025), and CTV households in Asia-Pacific are expected to rise from 160m in 2025 to 260m in 2030 (MPA, 2025).
Global FAST revenue forecasts, by research house
Two houses measuring the same market land close to 50% apart. Source: Digital TV Research (2024), Omdia (2025)
Across regions the gap runs to more than a hundredfold. North America is forecast to hold the largest market at approximately USD 6.5bn by 2029, while Europe moves from USD 820m in 2025 to above USD 1bn in 2027. The UK, Germany and France account for more than 60% of European revenue, and Spain leads European monthly FAST reach at 35% (Digital TV Research, 2025; Omdia, 2025).
FAST market size by region and country
Korea's domestic forecast is roughly one one-hundred-and-thirty-fifth of North America. Source: Digital TV Research (2024, 2025), Omdia (2024, 2025), Statista (2025)
South Korea FAST market revenue
The market doubles over six years but stays below USD 50m. Source: Omdia (2024)
Korea's domestic market stays small because fibre coverage, pay TV penetration above 90% and entrenched bundled tariffs leave little cord-cutting pressure (Korea Information Society Development Institute, 2024; Korea Creative Content Agency, 2025). That is precisely why the report locates K-FAST's value in the export route rather than domestic growth. Samsung TV Plus runs more than 4,300 channels in 30 countries and has passed 100m monthly active users, while LG Channels offers more than 5,000 channels in 37 countries on a webOS base of 260m sets.
2. Viewing and behaviour… US streaming at 44.8%, FAST at 5.7%
The ground FAST grew in was the American cable bill. Monthly cable costs average USD 80–100 per household even in the lower-priced South and exceed USD 120 in large cities; with box rental and regional sports fees added, effective bills frequently pass USD 150 (Cable Compare, 2025).
US TV viewing share, selected measures
Streaming and FAST figures are for May 2025; The Roku Channel is December 2025 and Tubi full-year 2025. Source: Nielsen (2025), Direct Media Lab (2026), Fox Corporation (2025)
The recurring finding in behavioural research is that FAST is not a substitute. Some 47% of paid subscribers also use FAST, and 77% of FAST viewers describe it as complementary to existing television rather than a replacement (The Wrap, 2024; Xumo, 2024). That is the basis for the report treating FAST as complementary distribution infrastructure that widens the set of routes, rather than a competitor to global OTT.
Behavioural indicators
3. Platforms… LG Channels leads on channel count, Tubi on North American share
Channel count and viewing share are different measures. Device- and OS-integrated services lead on channels; independents lead on share of dedicated FAST viewing in North America. It is one reason the report locates competitiveness not in channel count but in the combination of viewer contact, content differentiation, localization, technical infrastructure and data and monetization capability.
Channel counts, major FAST platforms
Plex's figure is for its largest market and varies widely by country. Source: company disclosures (2026), KOBACO (2026)
Share of dedicated FAST services in North America
Three operators account for 75% of dedicated FAST services in North America. Source: Apprupt (2026)
Major FAST platforms
Some figures differ between the report's Table 3-1 and its body text: ViX appears as 19 countries in the text and 21 in the table, and Pluto TV as several hundred channels in the text against 100+ in the table. Source: KOBACO (2026)
Few operators can be checked against results. Tubi passed USD 1.1bn (approx. KRW 1.49tn) in FY2025 revenue with fourth-quarter revenue up 32% year on year. Of Roku's total 2025 revenue of USD 4.737bn, USD 4.145bn — 87% — came from platform. Pluto TV runs the other way: global viewing time rose 8% in 2024, yet fourth-quarter 2025 non-Paramount+ DTC revenue fell 16% year on year. More channels and more viewing raised the supply of inventory while ad demand, sell-through and rates did not follow.
The structural variable is consolidation. In June 2026 Fox Corporation agreed to acquire Roku at an enterprise value of approximately USD 22bn (approx. KRW 29.7tn), with completion expected in the first half of 2027. On closing, Fox's broadcast and sports content and Tubi would sit alongside Roku OS and The Roku Channel, making the group third-largest by total US TV viewing time.
FAST-related acquisitions
Fox's Roku deal is more than six times the other four combined. Source: company announcements
4. Advertising… 85–90% programmatic, PMP rates near three times open market
FAST's advertising base rests on three technologies. Cloud playout cut channel build and operating costs by more than 90% (Amagi, 2024, 2025). Server-side ad insertion stitches advertising into the stream at the server, preventing buffering and defeating ad blockers. Automatic content recognition, embedded at the smart TV chipset, collects screen and audio data in real time and, combined with household IP, device ID and purchase history, feeds addressable advertising.
US CTV advertising CPM
Inventory tier moves the rate by close to three times. Source: Beet.TV, MNTN Research, Simulmedia (2025)
FAST ad revenue-sharing models
Source: KOBACO (2026), Table 2-2, drawn from Amagi (2025)
Choosing a settlement model is choosing who controls the rate. Revenue share removes the ad sales burden but leaves income dependent on the split ratio and settlement transparency; inventory share carries no ceiling but requires local ad sales capability. In a market where premium PMP and open-market CPMs differ by close to three times, that choice sets the revenue structure.
5. The bottleneck… condition, not quantity
What the report's 15 interviews identified as the bottleneck is not the quantity of content but its condition. Older Korean material lacks clean masters with video, music and subtitles separated, and lacks systematic metadata, which adds cost at subtitling, dubbing and re-editing. Music programmes and variety shows face particular constraints from music and ancillary rights.
Conditions on the platform side have also changed. Channel saturation and competition for exposure mean a listing alone produces little, and in the early stage transmission, integration and operating costs can exceed advertising revenue. The report therefore proposes viewing time, retention, sell-through, content-provider revenue and overseas platform renewal rates as the operative measures in place of channel count.
Policy tasks and the evidence behind them
Source: KOBACO (2026), Chapter 5 policy implications and Chapter 4 interview findings, reorganized
6. The full set… 76 indicators
The table below is the body of this document: category, indicator, value, unit, period and source, laid out to be lifted straight into a spreadsheet.
Source: KOBACO (2026) and the research houses cited within it. Compiled by K-EnterTech Hub
7. Notes on using this data
Name the house alongside every forecast
The report adopts Digital TV Research at USD 16.5bn for 2029; Omdia, at Content London in December 2025, put global FAST revenue at USD 11bn by 2030 (from USD 6bn in 2025). Small-market figures such as Korea at USD 48m or Spain at USD 65m move considerably depending on where the boundary of FAST is drawn.
The report is internally inconsistent in places
Source: KOBACO (2026), body text compared against Table 3-1
Few operators disclose standalone results
Samsung TV Plus, LG Channels, WatchFree+, Pluto TV, Rakuten TV, ViX, Xumo Play, Plex, NEW ID and Wurl all withhold standalone revenue. The verifiable standalone figures are limited to Tubi (above USD 1.1bn in FY2025) and Roku (USD 4.737bn in 2025, though not for the channel alone).
Korea has no baseline statistics
The report states that with no data on domestic platform users, viewing time or channel counts it had to rely substantially on market forecasts. It proposes four follow-up studies: baseline statistics and time series, country-level user surveys and viewing-log analysis, a regional market-prioritization model, and empirical work on break-even conditions by channel type.
Grade the figures before using them
The tiering is K-EnterTech Hub's assessment and does not appear in the report.
Sources
Kim Do-kyung and Kwon O-ju (2026). A Study on Promoting the K-FAST (Free Ad-supported Streaming TV) Ecosystem. Korea Broadcast Advertising Corporation, 123 pp. The report states that its content reflects the researchers' personal views and not the corporation's official position.
Digital TV Research (2024). Global FAST forecasts 2024-2029; Digital TV Research (2025), European and Latin American forecasts.
Omdia (2024, 2025). Regional FAST revenue forecasts. The USD 11bn 2030 figure comes from Content London 2025. https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20251202073598/en
Amagi and Omdia (2024). Global FAST audience and platform growth analysis. Informa Tech.
Comscore (2025). State of streaming 2025. https://www.comscore.com/Insights/Press-Releases/2025/10/Comscores-2025-State-of-Streaming-Report
Nielsen (2025). US streaming share of viewing (The Gauge). Direct Media Lab (2026). The Roku Channel viewing share.
Apprupt (2026). FAST channel statistics 2026-2027. https://www.apprupt.com/fast-channel-statistics/
Cable Compare (2025). US pay TV cord-cutting and cable rate trends 2024-2025.
Deloitte (2026). 2026 digital media trends. https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/insights/industry/technology/digital-media-trends.html · Harris Poll (2026).
Beet.TV, MNTN Research and Simulmedia (2025). Programmatic share and CPM in US CTV advertising.
MPA (2025). APAC CTV households and penetration. KBV Research (2025). European FAST channel CAGR. Statista (2025). Japan FAST revenue. Mordor Intelligence (2025). Latin American CTV ad spend. Expert Market Research (2025) and Market Data Forecast (2025). European smart TV base.
Amagi (2026). Indian listing (22 Jan), FY26 results (20 May), June AIRTIME report (1 Jul). https://www.amagi.com/newsroom/
Fox Corporation (15 Jun 2026). Agreement to acquire Roku. https://investor.foxcorporation.com/news/corp-press-releases/2026/fox-corporation-to-acquire-roku-inc/ · Fox Corporation (2025). FY2025 results.
AppLovin (4 Apr 2022). Completion of the Wurl acquisition. https://investors.applovin.com/news/news-details/2022/ · Walmart (2024). Completion of the VIZIO acquisition.
Samsung Electronics (2026), LG Electronics (2026), Paramount (2025, 2026), Roku (2026), Rakuten Group (2024), TelevisaUnivision (2026), Xumo (2026), Plex (2026), VIZIO (2024), Wurl (2026), NEW ID (2025).
Korea Information Society Development Institute (2024); Korea Creative Content Agency (2025); Kim Jung-sup (2024), FAST: The New Viewer-Friendly Channel of the K-Culture Era, Hanul Academy; Kim Hae-young and Kim Do-kyung (2025), Public Potential and Policy Implications of Ad-supported Streaming (FAST) Platforms, Media and Policy 3(1), 5-18.
How this was compiled — values reproduce the report's own figures, and the source column names the research house the report cites. Ranges are entered at their midpoint with the original range noted alongside (the 85–90% programmatic share of US CTV advertising as 87.5; Samsung Ads annual revenue of USD 700–750m as USD 725m).
Won conversions apply KRW 1,350 per dollar, the rate implied where the report renders USD 16.5bn as approximately KRW 22.3tn. Omdia's December 2025 release states Spain's FAST revenue in billions; USD 32m to 65m is the correct magnitude. The report states that its findings are the researchers' personal views and not the official position of the Korea Broadcast Advertising Corporation.