The FAST Audit (Feb '26): Pluto’s Stealth Rebrand, Local News, and Millennial Nostalgia

Another month, another update. This month sees 1,572 total distinct channels available across the 9 major platforms tracked. As a reminder, these are LG Channels, Peacock (FAST only, excludes PAST), Pluto, Prime Video, Roku Channel, Samsung TV Plus, Tubi (check out my comments about their UK growth in The Ankler this week), Vizio and Xumo.

Couple of interesting points. Pluto rebranded their channels, dropping the ‘TV’ from ‘Pluto TV’, adding Pluto to otherwise generically named O&O channels—perhaps realizing that if you own a channel, it’s a good idea to let audiences know, something that maybe other FAST platforms will adopt soon—and also adding Pluto to channels from other divisions. It would appear that a channel with the name “Pluto channel title” is one that Pluto historically operated, whilst “Channel title Pluto” is one from another internal division, i.e., CBS or BET. Pluto also added the suffix “on Pluto” to several channels, I am imagining to show they are a distinct 2P offering, such as “Cops on Pluto” and “Tastemade Smokehouse on Pluto.”

Local news continues to fuel some of these massive channel counts. If we were to assume that all platforms employed geofencing along the lines of those who do (more below), the numbers would change a little, my estimates as follows:

Roku Channel = 628

Prime Video = 611

Samsung TV Plus = 540

LG Channels = 432

Vizio WatchFree+ = 390

Pluto = 386

Xumo = 367

Tubi = 162

Roku therefore offers more non-local news channels than Prime once you create a model where viewers only see relevant local content. Both remain considerably ahead of all other platforms for total channels offered even with this level-set analysis.

The tremendous growth in FAST channels is leading to both unparalleled linear choice (especially so if you’re a mature viewer and love how FAST is morphing into a diginet utopia) and a massive ad inventory glut and lower CPMs. I mapped out the growth some key genres have seen across the years to spotlight this.

The local news growth is the biggest growth story. We have gone from just 2 distinct stations being offered across major FAST platforms in 2020—how this could have been a different chart had STIRR not imploded—to 235 in 2026. Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but if you’re not geofencing these on your service and instead are serving up 50, 100 or even 200 local stations for a viewer to scroll through, what are you doing? Local news can play a key role in a FAST offering but not if you’re going to serve up relevant stations only, you run the risk of driving viewers away, with younger demos particularly at risk.

The math backs this up: Pew Research found in late 2025 that 48% of 18-29s say they follow local news very or somewhat closely, versus 71% of 50-64s. So if a young viewer stumbles into your FAST platform and is presented with an overwhelming list of local stations, there’s a 1 in 2 chance they won’t think your service is relevant for them. Bad news for you, bad news for the advertisers looking to reach them. It’s the strategic difference between prioritizing growth by any means—maximizing hours watched—and growth by strategic means—hours that advertisers want.

True Crime’s rise in FAST is fascinating. (FYI, for classification purposes and avoiding spiraling into sub-sub-sub-genres, courtroom channels are included within this and account for 11 of the 73 channels). The abundance of true crime content on cable—remember, even CNBC dabbled in this format for a time—means a lot of available hours, with the rise of alternative true crime via podcasts fueling even more channels.

The advent of channels like BuzzFeed Unsolved and Jellysmack’s Mystery speaks to how, whilst true crime remains popular among younger generations, the format and style they prefer differs from classic true crime, being more emotionally-driven than the traditional pure facts approach. Even a cheap-to-produce format like this now lacks true economies of scale, as the same crime would require 2x episodes to truly reach the mass market.

The largest channel operators in this space are Radial Entertainment (14), A+E Networks (9), Paramount (7), Amazon MGM Studios (7), and Warner Bros. Discovery (6). I would anticipate the total volume of distinct true crime channels to level off soon, perhaps with more YA-focused channels. A sensible estimate would be that there might be 85 on offer in a year’s time.

Now let’s address the state of kids TV in FAST. It’s a funny concept because linear kids TV is dying faster than the dinosaurs.

With kids these days not really into the linear experience, and SVOD services offering first dibs on any major IP (or second, or third, or even fourth dibs), just what is there on FAST and what’s behind the growth?

If you segment it out, there are 29 channels from legacy Big Media, which in this case includes the huge toy companies, and 44 from Independent Media. Break this down by channel operators, and something interesting emerges - the massive long tail of Kids FAST. 53% of all Kids channels are operated by five companies: Paramount and WildBrain each with 12, Hasbro with 6, Mattel with 5, and Moonbug with 4. WBD for all its kids content riches has a paltry one channel (and it’s not Cartoon Network-branded). The content is mostly 90s and early 00s content, so perhaps not so much for active children but late-night Millennials and Gen-Xers looking for a nostalgia hit. This doesn't mean it's not a bad play for ad-dollars, but we have to rethink the audience, and the EPG branding, if so.

Need to navigate the channel sprawl? The line between an impressive library and an overwhelming UX has never been thinner. If you want to discuss your platform's channel strategy, geofencing capabilities, or content positioning with the industry's leading independent strategist, let’s talk.