The FASTMaster Chart of the Month: Mapping the 1,604-Channel Ecosystem (March 2026)
The US FAST grid has bloated to 1,604 active channels. Unscripted TV dominates with 550 feeds, while single-IP channels increasingly contribute to EPG clutter. Explore our interactive Chart of the Month to uncover exact genre saturation and preview the new Advertiser Attractiveness score.
Before the official March FAST Audit drops, we need to look at the structural density of the ecosystem. FAST isn't just growing; it is suffocating under its own weight. We are now tracking a staggering 1,604 active channels across the top nine major platforms (LG Channels, Peacock, Pluto TV, Prime Video, Roku Channel, Samsung TV Plus, Tubi, Vizio WatchFree+, and Xumo Play)—up from 1,565 in January.
But volume without strategy is just noise. To cut through the bloat, this Chart of the Month maps the exact footprint of the US FAST landscape by genre and sub-genre. Unscripted TV continues to anchor the ecosystem, commanding 550 channels and dwarfing Scripted TV (276) and Movies (156) combined. News is the second-largest bloc at 306 channels, heavily inflated by the relentless, localized news avalanche.
Rounding out the grid are Music & Ambient (124 channels), Sports (118 channels), and Kids (73 channels). And while the ecosystem now supports 367 Single-IP channels and 52 Franchise channels, let's be clear: these are not automatically the solution. In reality, many of these isolated IP feeds are far from bingeable and are actively contributing to the overall EPG bloat rather than solving it.
The Interactive Dashboard & The Attractiveness Preview The chart below is fully interactive. Drill down into the sub-genre bubbles to see the exact volume of channels within each category.
More importantly, this month serves as the official preview of the proprietary FASTMaster Advertiser Attractiveness Score. If you select the drop-down menu and hover over the data, you will see the top-ranked channels per sub-genre based on their actual buy-side viability, not just their existence on the grid. We are keeping the raw scores under the hood for now—expect a massive deep dive into the exact math and rankings in the coming weeks—but this dashboard gives you the immediate buy-side baseline to see what advertisers actually value.
