More than 22.5 billion minutes of Gunsmoke were streamed last year on free ad-supported TV (FAST) channels. If you went back in time 22.5 billion minutes, you would go back around 43,000 years. That far back was right about the time that the first cave paintings were done, which would be the start of modern storytelling.
As for FAST, what started as a catch-all for library content and niche channels has grown into a distribution layer carrying some of the most-watched shows in streaming, including Gunsmoke, The Price Is Right, and NCIS. Because this is programming that audiences actively seek out, FAST inventory has earned its place in the modern media plan.
While the signals to describe it in the bidstream are growing fast and are better than other options, they could definitely benefit from improvements.
When buyers run programmatic campaigns across FAST, their algorithms make decisions based on what's in the bidstream. And the bidstream, for a lot of FAST inventory, is empty — no program title, no genre, no content rating, often not even a channel name that resolves to anything identifiable.
In short, the algorithm isn't optimizing toward the best FAST inventory; rather, it's moving spend toward whatever completion rates and CPMs are available in a largely signal-blind environment.
The signals are better in FAST than anywhere else in CTV
Across open exchange CTV broadly, 35% of bid requests contain usable program-level signals. In FAST, that number is above the average and the highest by service, both subscription services and standalone publisher apps.
Completeness of Signals
|
All CTV |
35.0% |
|
FAST services only |
39.9% |
|
Subscription services only |
30.8% |
|
Direct Apps (standalone publisher apps) |
35.2% |
FAST platforms often aggregate hundreds of channels under a single app label, and the metadata describing what's playing (genre, show title, ratings, content type) makes it difficult for buyers to know if it's accurate.
What buyers end up with is an app name. "Pluto TV." "Tubi." "Peacock Free": labels like these describe the container, making them roughly as useful as only knowing the zip code of the building where something happened. A buyer running a campaign has no reliable way to know, from the bidstream alone, whether their ad ran against Gunsmoke or a three-minute clip package or a looping ambient channel that technically qualifies as FAST inventory.
What the algorithm sees vs. what's actually on screen
DSPs are designed to find the most efficient path to a completed impression. When signals are missing, the algorithm falls back on what it can measure: completion rate and price. In FAST, both of these metrics can be unreliable guides.
Completion rates in FAST cluster between 95% and 100% across nearly every content type. Peer39's benchmarks document this pattern across the full CTV ecosystem: the metric doesn't distinguish between a viewer watching a live episode and a background app running with no one in the room. Here, FAST actually has an edge — within FAST specifically, 1.14% of bid requests are categorized as Fake CTV, well below the open exchange average.
When it comes to price, FAST inventory is often cheaper than broadcaster or SVOD supply, which is part of the channel's appeal. But cheaper inventory without signal verification isn't always efficient; it's the algorithm finding the path of least resistance, which in a signal-poor environment tends to point toward the lowest-quality supply.
The fix isn't fewer channels, it's using better signals
A common instinct is to solve FAST's quality problem through curation: tighter channel lists, premium packages, restriction to known publishers. This limits reach without fixing the underlying issue. A curated FAST deal can still collapse different content types under a single app label. A hand-picked channel list still tells the algorithm almost nothing about what's on screen at the moment of the bid.
What actually changes the outcome is program-level signal, using authenticated data that identifies what show is playing, what genre it belongs to, what the content rating is, and whether the inventory is professional television. When that signal is present, the algorithm can do what it's designed to do. When it isn't, the algorithm finds completion wherever it's cheapest.
And the results using authenticated data bear this out.
Peer39's analysis of authenticated FAST and CTV inventory shows that program-level signals correlate strongly with TV-screen delivery, named channels, and standard content ratings. Without those signals, a meaningful share of delivery resolves to environments that look fine in a dashboard but have nothing to do with the programming a buyer thought they were reaching.
FAST carries quality programming. The top streaming titles that audiences come back for are the ones linear TV built decades of brand equity around, and they are available there. They exist alongside channels generating bid requests with no signal and no verified content, and from the open exchange, the two are indistinguishable. Using program-level signals inside of FAST is what smart buyers are doing now. And those that don't are at the mercy of algorithms buying the wrong inventory efficiently.
Want to understand what authenticated FAST buying looks like in practice? Download the report: Getting FAST Right: A Signal-First Approach to Buying FAST.
