A unified infrastructure will push FAST to a new operational paradigm
As Free Ad-Supported Streaming TV (FAST) continues to reshape how audiences consume video, medioperators are confronting a new operational reality — managing a FAST channel at scale requires much more than playout. It demands a synchronised system that integrates ingest, transcoding, automation, ad signalling, and global delivery within a single operational framework.
According to DVEO and Stream Republic, the biggest barrier to FAST scalability today is not audience demand but infrastructure fragmentations. “The promise of FAST is reach and flexibility, but many operators are running their channels on systems designed for linear TV,” explained David Vargas, CEO, DVEO. “They’re integrating multiple vendors, each with their own metadata, latency, and monitoring tools. That complexity slows down innovation. What the market needs now is convergence, one ecosystem designed specifically for FAST.”
FAST distribution mirrors the broadcast chain but operates in a cloud-native, adaptive environment. Each stage, from ingest to transcoding and ad signalling, introduces potential latency and synchronisation risks when handled separately. DVEO and Stream Republic advocate a unified architecture that consolidates these processes, enabling faster time-to-market, lower latency, and more consistent monetisation.
In the FAST ecosystem, monetisation depends on signal integrity and timing precision as much as ad inventory. Frame-level SCTE-35 signalling and automated server-side ad insertion enable targeted advertising and real-time performance tracking.
“Ad insertion used to be an isolated task,” noted Wouter van Ruth, Global Sales Director, DVEO. “Now, it’s a function of the entire workflow — from ingest to delivery. Without accurate metadata and real-time monitoring, monetisation doesn’t scale.”
As audiences expand globally, so does the complexity of maintaining low latency and high availability. Traditional broadcast infrastructure was not designed for geo-distributed, cloud-based operations. A fully integrated FAST ecosystem, DVEO said, turns what was once an experimental monetisation model into a sustainable business framework.
Vargas concluded, “FAST isn’t just another channel type; it’s a new operational paradigm. To succeed, the technology behind it has to be as flexible as the audience it serves.”
