MUMBAI: There was a time when the battle for India’s living rooms was fought with a set-top box and a remote. Today, a new wave is washing ashore — lean, free, and impossibly fast.

At the IndianTelevision.com’s 21 Video and Broadband Summit 2025, the panel "FAST Services and the Subscriber: The Way Forward" unpacked how free ad-supported television (FAST) could become the next disruptor in India’s media landscape, pushing past subscription fatigue with a wink and a free pass.

Samsung Electronics director of product services Vivek Mishra chaired a lively session featuring Planetcast COO - digital Venugopal Iyengar, Shemaroo DVP - India digital and international syndication Inderpal Singh, GroupM Nexus head (advanced TV and media solutions) Rajiv Rajagopal, Runn TV founder & CEO Manish Sinha, and Skandha Technologies director growth and business development Anil Kumar. Their consensus was clear: FAST isn’t just a buzzword — it is a full-blown revolution.

Iyengar set the tone, noting that FAST addresses three critical consumer demands: accessibility, affordability, and simplicity. “It reduces cognitive overload. No 1,000 posters. Just click, watch, relax,” he quipped. FAST’s secret sauce? A curated, lean-back experience without subscription paywalls.

Rajagopal put the numbers on the table, “FAST channels in India have exploded from 30–40 in 2021 to over 250 now, and are expected to top 1,000 within three years.” Connected TV ownership is also rising fast — from under 5 per cent before 2020 to 15 per cent today — and expected to surpass 35 per cent by 2030.

Singh pointed out that India’s unique media clutter makes FAST even more necessary. “It’s not just quality platforms. It’s video, social, everything. FAST helps users escape decision fatigue,” he said. With 100 million TV-dark households still untapped, Singh predicted FAST would thrive alongside pay-TV and OTT services rather than replace them.

Sinha brought it back to the user, “Most users don’t even know they’re watching FAST. They see content; they’re happy”. Sinha explained that audiences are appreciating the "click-and-consume" ease of FAST, where content discovery is baked into the platform rather than leaving users to search.

Meanwhile, Kumar noted that the FAST ecosystem still rides largely on repurposed content. "It’s early days — we’re curating special-interest content, but still repurposing more than creating”, he said. Channels focused on genres like short films, poetry, and stand-up comedy are slowly emerging, tailored for highly targeted audiences.

The panel didn’t shy away from the elephant in the room: monetisation. FAST’s ad revenues in India are still modest compared to western benchmarks. Iyengar noted that CPMs in India hover around $3 compared to $12–18 in the west. However, technology enablers like Planetcast are optimising delivery costs by over 50 per cent, making the FAST model increasingly viable.

Caution remains, especially among traditional broadcasters. “Nobody's making original content exclusively for FAST yet", Iyengar admitted. "The push factor isn’t as strong here. Subscription TV still costs Rs 250, not Rs 8,000 like in the US." But with 45 million connected TVs already lighting up Indian homes — and set to touch 60 million by year-end — momentum is building.

FAST may be free to watch, but make no mistake — in India’s great TV revolution, it is playing for keeps.