Less than two years after its high-profile launch, the Nine-owned Pedestrian Television FAST channel has quietly vanished from the 9Now streaming platform.
Launched in October 2023, the dedicated FAST channel for young Australians promised “chaotic good TV” with a 24/7 mix of lo-fi news, culture, music, reality and web oddities.
Now removed from Nine’s free streaming service, the channel has been placed on hiatus as Pedestrian shifts its content strategy.
Pedestrian Group CEO Mason Rook confirming the change to TV Blackbox, saying the shift reflects a broader move toward on-demand viewing among its core younger millennial audience.
“We’re placing [the live channel] on hiatus for the time being so we can fully focus on our curated on-demand channel”
Rook said.
“This pivot allows us to deliver even more engaging content that truly resonates with our audience, whenever and wherever they want to watch it.”
Launched on its parent company’s BVOD (Broadcast Video On Demand) service 9Now in late 2023, Pedestrian TV positioned itself as Australia’s only youth-focused FAST offering, featuring curated titles licensed from Sony Pictures, OUTtv, AIR, and others, alongside original content from Pedestrian Group’s publishing brands, including PEDESTRIAN.TV, VICE, and The Chainsaw.
The move comes as FAST (Free Ad-Supported Streaming Television) channels continue to grow globally — but Pedestrian says their data shows younger viewers increasingly prefer on-demand, bingeable formats over passive streams.
The brand is now doubling down on that direction, promising a refreshed on-demand slate with a focus on movies, reality, drama and documentaries. It’s also not ruling out a return to live-channel territory down the line.
9Now’s FAST offering still includes a broad slate of channels such as 9Crime, Seinfeld 24/7, Dance Moms 24/7, 60 Minutes Australia, dedicated streams for MAFS and The Block, a Lifetime Movie Network channel, and a suite of BBC-branded channels covering Top Gear, Earth, Comedy, Food, Antiques Roadshow and Home & Garden.
Pedestrian TV’s linear experiment may be on pause, but its pivot to on-demand suggests the chaos isn’t over — just taking a different form.
