Amagi report says FAST viewing jumps 55 per cent as metadata gaps hit streaming growth

BENGALURU: FAST television may be gathering speed, but the industry’s metadata engine still needs a tune-up. That is the key takeaway from the latest AIRTIME Report released by Amagi, which found that global viewing on Free Ad-supported Streaming Television (FAST) channels grew 55 per cent year on year even as poor metadata continues to hamper discovery and advertising performance.

The June 2026 edition of the quarterly report analyses data from around 6,500 FAST channel deliveries distributed through Amagi’s THUNDERSTORM server-side ad insertion platform between April 1 and June 15, 2026, compared with the same period a year earlier.

According to the report, global hours of viewing increased 55 per cent year on year, while ad impressions rose 53 per cent. The United States and Canada remained the largest monetisation market, accounting for 54 per cent of global viewing hours and 74 per cent of ad impressions.

Latin America emerged as the fastest-growing region, with viewing hours soaring 190 per cent and ad impressions increasing 124 per cent, driven by the addition of new high-viewership channels and portfolio expansion.

Entertainment remained the dominant content category, contributing 41 per cent of classified viewing hours and 40 per cent of ad impressions. News generated 27 per cent of viewing but delivered 33 per cent of ad impressions, making it one of the strongest-performing genres from a monetisation perspective. Children’s programming recorded the fastest growth, with viewing hours up 191 per cent and ad impressions rising 118 per cent.

Beyond audience trends, this edition places a spotlight on what Amagi calls the industry’s “metadata reckoning”. A survey of 28 senior professionals from across the media ecosystem found that 86 per cent viewed reformatting metadata for different streaming platforms as their biggest operational challenge. An equal proportion said poor metadata was directly affecting revenue through weaker content discovery, reduced advertising performance or lower platform visibility.

The survey also found that 71 per cent of respondents believe metadata received from content owners is often incomplete, while 68 per cent expect major streaming platforms to set metadata standards within the next three years. Artificial intelligence is expected to play a central role, with 68 per cent anticipating AI will handle most metadata generation with minimal human oversight during that period.

The report features guest analysis from Gavin Bridge, chief analyst at FASTMaster, who argues that the industry’s biggest challenge is no longer creating metadata but adapting it to meet the varying requirements of different platforms.

“The metadata that wins is the kind that can be consumed by agents, human and AI. Bad metadata won’t just look wrong in a grid; it’ll be invisible to the systems doing the recommending,” FASTMaster chief analyst Gavin Bridge said.

Commenting on the findings, Amagi co-founder and president, global business, Srinivasan KA said, “FAST has earned its place at the centre of the modern media stack. What this report makes clear is that the next competitive edge isn’t reach; it’s operational precision.”

He added, “Metadata is where discovery, ad revenue and audience intelligence converge, and the industry is only beginning to close the gap between what it knows and what it acts on.”

The AIRTIME Report is now in its 17th edition and combines platform data with industry surveys to track trends across FAST television, advertising and media operations. As streaming platforms continue to expand globally, the latest findings suggest that improving metadata quality may prove just as important as growing audiences in shaping the next phase of FAST’s evolution.