3Vision's Video Markets Tracker shows Western Europe's FAST channel market generated $1.9 billion in revenue in 2026 and is forecast to reach $3.4 billion by 2031, a 76% increase. But the platforms driving that growth are shifting. Hardware-embedded free ad-supported streaming TV services, including Samsung TV Plus and LG Channels, are expanding faster than the app-based incumbents that built the category, and the distribution gap between them is widening.
3Vision’s FAST Tracker shows that Western Europe is now home to over 7,500 live FAST channels across 15 markets, up from 5,600 a year ago, a 34% increase in twelve months. That expansion isn't evenly distributed. The platforms winning the FAST channel distribution race are the ones that ship pre-installed on connected TVs, while the software-first pioneers that defined the segment's early years are flattening out.
FAST Channel Count by Platform: Samsung TV Plus and LG Channels Overtake Pluto TV in Western Europe
For years, Pluto TV defined the free ad-supported streaming TV landscape in Europe. Backed by Paramount Global and launched across most major Western European markets from 2022, Pluto TV carried the region's largest single-platform FAST channel count as recently as August 2025, with 1,282 live channels across seven markets.
That lead is gone. Our FAST Tracker shows Samsung TV Plus grew its Western European FAST channel count from 1,193 to 1,471 between August 2025 and August 2026, a net gain of 278 channels (23% year-on-year). Over the same twelve months, Pluto TV's channel count in Western Europe contracted slightly, falling from 1,282 to 1,252.
Samsung isn't alone in this hardware-driven surge. LG Channels grew even faster in absolute terms, expanding from 1,184 to 1,530 live FAST channels (a 29% increase), making it the largest free ad-supported streaming TV platform in Western Europe by channel count as of August 2026. Rakuten TV, which distributes through smart TV partnerships rather than owning hardware, also scaled aggressively, rising from 1,069 to 1,527 channels. VIDAA Channels, the Hisense-embedded FAST service, entered the Western European connected TV market entirely within the past year, launching across five markets and reaching 581 live channels by August 2026.
The total Western European FAST channel count grew 34% year-on-year. Hardware-embedded and hardware-partnered platforms accounted for essentially all of that growth.
The channel count data points to a structural shift in how FAST content reaches European viewers. If you're evaluating FAST channel placement in Western Europe today, the direction is clear: connected TV manufacturers now control the primary distribution layer, and any FAST strategy that relies solely on app-based reach is competing at a growing disadvantage. This isn't a temporary blip. It reflects the compounding effect of hardware pre-installation across millions of new connected TVs sold each year. The gap between embedded platforms and app-based services will only continue to widen as more households replace older TV sets with smart TVs that come pre-loaded with FAST services out of the box.
FAST Channel Revenue Forecast 2026 to 2031: Pluto TV Leads, but Samsung TV Plus Is Closing the Gap
If the channel count story has already flipped, the FAST channel revenue picture is further behind, but it's moving in the same direction.
Our Video Markets Tracker shows Pluto TV generating $173.9 million in Western European FAST revenue in 2026, making it still comfortably the region's largest pure FAST platform by turnover. Samsung TV Plus sits at $39.5 million, and LG Channels at $18.9 million. Pluto TV's head start in content licensing, advertiser relationships and brand awareness among European viewers continues to sustain a significant revenue advantage.
But the growth rates tell a different story. Samsung TV Plus FAST revenue is forecast to reach $105.5 million by 2031, a 167% increase over five years. LG Channels grows from $18.9 million to $43.2 million over the same period, a 129% increase. Pluto TV grows from $173.9 million to $335.5 million. It's still expanding, but at a slower 93% rate. Samsung TV Plus is closing the revenue gap by roughly $13 million per year. At that pace, the current $134 million revenue difference between the two platforms will narrow significantly before the end of the forecast period.
The biggest single FAST markets reinforce this dynamic. The United Kingdom generates $719 million in total FAST revenue in 2026 (37% of the Western European total) and is forecast to reach $1.17 billion by 2031. Germany follows at $431 million. Together, these two markets account for over $1.1 billion in FAST channel advertising revenue this year, and both are markets where Samsung's installed connected TV base is particularly deep. France ($124 million), Italy ($96 million), Spain ($79 million), and Sweden ($64 million) round out the next tier.
For investors and advertisers, the revenue trajectory suggests the Western European FAST advertising market will increasingly concentrate around connected TV platforms with built-in distribution. Samsung TV Plus's 167% five-year growth rate versus Pluto TV's 93% shows that hardware-embedded reach is already translating into ad-revenue share gains. This is a pattern that will reshape how connected TV advertising budgets are allocated across the region over the next five years, and it's one that operators and advertisers should be tracking closely.
Why Connected TV Manufacturers Are Winning the FAST Distribution Race in Europe
The advantage is structural. Samsung TV Plus is pre-loaded on every Samsung smart TV sold in Europe, and Samsung has been the continent's top-selling TV brand for nearly two decades. When a viewer connects a new Samsung television to their home Wi-Fi, Samsung TV Plus is often the first thing they see. There's no app to download, no account to create, no subscription to manage. LG Channels benefits from the same dynamic on LG sets, and VIDAA Channels now replicates the model across Hisense's growing European installed base.
Pluto TV requires a deliberate download on most devices. It built its European presence as a standalone app, available on smart TVs, streaming sticks, and mobile devices, but without the automatic activation that comes with connected TV hardware ownership. In a market where most free ad-supported streaming TV viewing is passive and habitual rather than actively chosen, that distribution gap compounds over time. Every year that passes adds another cohort of Samsung, LG, and Hisense TV buyers who default to the FAST service already sitting on their home screen.
The content strategies also diverge. Our FAST Tracker shows Samsung TV Plus runs a notably broad genre mix: entertainment accounts for 17.5% of its Western European channels, followed by movies (12.7%), documentary (11.4%), music (9.9%), sports (9.9%), scripted TV (9.2%), news (7.7%) and kids (7.2%). No single category dominates. Pluto TV skews heavier toward entertainment (27.6%) and scripted TV (25.7%), more than half its lineup, with narrower representation in news, music and documentary. Samsung's breadth gives it more surface area to capture casual viewing occasions across different audiences and dayparts.
The structural advantage that connected TV manufacturers hold in FAST distribution mirrors a broader trend across global streaming markets. The screen owner increasingly controls the content gateway. For content owners and production companies licensing to FAST platforms, this means prioritising placement on hardware-embedded services where default visibility drives incremental reach. The platforms that come pre-loaded on the TV set will keep pulling further ahead of those that require a viewer to go looking for them.
FAST Platform Market Coverage in Western Europe: Samsung TV Plus, LG Channels, Rakuten TV, and VIDAA Channels
The two distribution models also diverge on geographic market coverage. Samsung TV Plus operates across eight Western European markets (UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden), with the UK (254 channels), Germany (189), and France (184) carrying the deepest lineups. Pluto TV covers seven markets, the same minus the Netherlands, with its largest presence in Sweden (221 channels), the UK (208), and Germany (194).
LG Channels has matched Samsung's eight-market footprint and leads it in several individual markets. Rakuten TV has gone furthest of all, reaching nine markets including Portugal, where it's the only major FAST platform with a meaningful channel lineup. VIDAA Channels has already launched across five markets in its first year.
No single FAST platform holds a dominant market coverage advantage in Western Europe. For broadcasters and local streaming platforms evaluating FAST distribution partnerships, the fragmentation of platform reach across markets creates both complexity and opportunity. Multi-platform distribution is now essential to maximise audience reach across the region. If you're licensing content to FAST platforms in Europe, you can't afford to bet on just one. You need to be on Samsung TV Plus, LG Channels, and Rakuten TV at a minimum, and increasingly on VIDAA Channels as Hisense's European footprint grows.
What the Paramount-WBD Merger Means for Pluto TV's FAST Strategy in Europe
Pluto TV's position isn't collapsing. It remains among the top FAST platforms in Western Europe by revenue, and it carries a library of Paramount-owned scripted content that no hardware platform can match. But its growth has stalled on the distribution metrics at a moment when the broader segment is expanding by a third year-on-year.
The Paramount-Skydance acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery adds a further variable. Whether the combined entity directs Pluto TV's library toward its own SVOD platforms (Max, Paramount+, SkyShowtime) or doubles down on FAST as a connected TV advertising play will be one of the most consequential content distribution decisions in European streaming over the next two years.
The Paramount-WBD merger creates the largest combined content library in global streaming, but its FAST implications for Europe remain uncertain. For media companies and content distributors, the key question is whether the merged entity will invest in Pluto TV's European distribution infrastructure or redirect its library to subscription platforms. That decision could reshape the competitive balance of the entire Western European FAST market. If the library tilts toward SVOD, it would remove one of the few remaining content advantages that Pluto TV holds over hardware-embedded rivals. It's one worth watching closely.
Western Europe FAST Revenue in Context: AVOD Share and the Streaming Market Forecast to 2031
Total FAST revenues represent roughly 11% of all AVOD revenue across Western Europe in 2026, up from under 8% three years ago. The free ad-supported streaming TV segment remains a fraction of the total streaming market (SVOD alone generates $30.7 billion across the region this year), but it's the fastest-growing component of the ad-funded video mix. That growth rate matters. FAST is moving from a niche within AVOD to a meaningful share of how European audiences discover and consume ad-funded content.
3Vision's Video Markets Tracker forecasts FAST channel revenues will grow from $1.9 billion in 2026 to $3.4 billion by 2031, with the UK and Germany together accounting for over half that total. Hardware-embedded connected TV platforms are positioned to capture a disproportionate share of that growth. Pluto TV and other app-based FAST services will need to find new distribution strategies, or new ownership priorities, to keep pace in a segment they helped create.
The lesson is straightforward: in the Western European FAST market, the screen is the platform. The connected TV manufacturers that make those screens are winning the distribution race.
Source: 3Vision Video Markets Tracker (August 2026), 3Vision FAST Tracker (August 2026). For full FAST channel revenue forecasts, connected TV platform analysis, and Western Europe streaming market data, visit 3vision.tv or contact your 3Vision account manager.
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