The Roku Channel Tops Comscore's List of Most Popular FAST Services

A new report from measurement firm Comscore has shed light on the popularity of Roku, both as a streaming service and an operating system. According to the June findings, Roku is the most popular CTV operating system by time spent, representing 49% of the total market. Capitalizing on this usage, The Roku Channel has become the most popular streaming service among all free, ad-supported streaming television (FAST) offerings. The data was made available because Comscore recently began including The Roku Channel in its planning tool, called Connected TV Intelligence (CTVi). It reveals, for the first time, a side-by-side comparison of the most popular FAST services, which have grown rapidly in recent years. "Advertisers have a lot of options nowadays in terms of channels to deploy spend across," said Brian Pugh, chief information officer at Comscore. "Particularly with FAST, which is evolving quickly, it is important to understand the landscape when looking at budget allocation." FAST streamers remain a relatively small portion of the broader streaming universe. According to the Nielsen Gauge report from April, Tubi, The Roku Channel and Pluto TV cumulatively account for less than 4% of total TV consumption. But with fragmentation and increasing subscription prices—both Max and Peacock recently announced price hikes—the FAST universe, which also includes offerings like Freevee, Xumo and Crackle, is growing in popularity. For instance, Pluto TV, Tubi and The Roku Channel all report to reach around 80 million monthly active users or households in 2024. Revenue from FAST platforms has grown as well, increasing almost 20-fold from 2019 to 2022 to more than $4 billion, according to research firm Omdia. And it is expected to triple again by 2027 to $12 billion. Roku tops the FAST hierarchy The Comscore report offers two primary findings. First, it measures the market share of major operating systems by time spent. The data found that Roku, with 49% of total time spent, leads the pack. Amazon (16%) is in second and Samsung (14%) is third, while Google (2%) and Apple (1%) make up the other contenders. The remaining 17% of the market is split between a variety of OS providers. The second finding reveals the most popular FAST services by total hours. The Comscore report placed The Roku Channel (42%) first, Pluto TV (38%) in second and Tubi (20%) in third. These findings would suggest that The Roku Channel is the most popular offering in the rapidly growing FAST ecosystem. Importantly, Roku’s position as the most popular OS is a key factor in the popularity of its FAST service. Roku positions The Roku Channel prominently on its OS, and given the ubiquity of the Roku OS, that provides The Roku Channel with a high degree of visibility. At its May NewFront event, Roku president Charlie Collier touted this same strategic advantage to ad buyers, calling Roku the “lead-in” for streaming. However, the Comscore data is at odds with findings from other measurement firms. The Nielsen Gauge report mentioned earlier places Tubi in the lead, responsible for 1.7% of total streaming consumption. The Roku Channel trails closely at 1.4%, with Pluto TV in third at 0.8%. Notably, Nielsen and Comscore used different methodologies for the data reports. Comscore measured only FAST services, while Nielsen's report reflects all streamers such as Netflix, Hulu and Peacock. But the discrepancies highlight the challenge of universal measurement in the streaming space, a pain point that is particularly acute among FAST offerings, which have only recently become mainstays in conversations around consumption. Nonetheless, as more ad spend flows to CTV, and more price-conscious consumers grow weary of hiking subscription rates, the FAST ecosystem is poised to expand. According to Comscore, at the moment, the race is The Roku Channel’s to lose.