More consumers are choosing to watch free, ad-supported streaming platforms (otherwise known as FAST channels) amid the rapid rise of subscription prices from traditional streamers.

Ad-free streaming plans have become a primary target of price increases as media companies like Netflix (NFLX), Max (WBD), and Amazon (AMZN) raise the costs of their respective offerings. Paramount (PARA) joined the price hike bandwagon on Monday, announcing it will raise the monthly costs of its Paramount+ tiers, both with and without Showtime, beginning Aug. 20.

But as prices rise, consumers are turning to other options. Free options.

FAST providers, which include The Roku Channel (ROKU), Fox affiliate Tubi (FOX), Paramount's Pluto TV, among others, all saw viewership upticks during the month of May, according to the latest data from Nielsen.

Tubi, for example, led year-over-year growth for Fox following a nearly 5% monthly viewing increase. It secured a platform-best 1.8% of total TV usage for the month as a record 1 million viewers tuned in. This represented a 46% year-over-year increase with Tubi's average audience racing ahead of traditional streamers including Disney+, Peacock, Paramount+, and Max, Nielsen confirmed.

Meanwhile, a 1.3% monthly bump in viewing to The Roku Channel led the FAST provider to a platform-best 1.5% share of TV. It was the only company to climb in the rankings for May, nabbing 10th overall.

"We're seeing [the FAST] model resonate more and more with younger audiences because their taste and preferences with what's good and what they want to watch is evolving," Tubi CEO Anjali Sud said on the Ringer’s podcast "The Town With Matthew Belloni" in April.

63% of Tubi's audience are "cord cutters" or "cord nevers" while 40% are not on other traditional streamers.

"It is different to be 100% free," Sud told Belloni. "We're not asking you to subscribe to an ad tier or a subscription tier. We're not trying to upsell you. The fragmentation and friction is reduced."

It's a similar model to what has made YouTube, owned by parent company Alphabet (GOOGL, GOOG), such a massive success.

According to Nielsen, YouTube amassed 9.7% of overall viewership on connected and traditional TVs in the US during the month of May — the largest share of TV for a streaming platform ever reported by the agency.

Experts say YouTube's growth has led to the increased interest of ad-supported options like FAST channels, especially from younger consumers.

"YouTube is essentially pushing us towards [this] very search-driven experience," said Vikrant Mathur, co-founder of Future Today, a company that specializes in ad-supported connected TV solutions. "I'm looking for a movie or a TV show. I find it wherever I find it. I go watch it. As long as there's no barriers to that content, I prefer that experience rather than having to subscribe."

Still, it's not a proven business model. Tubi, which Fox acquired for $440 million in 2020, has yet to turn a profit with its longterm outlook also in question amid the expected re-acceleration of M&A within the industry.

"I'm probably a little bit more cautious than others," Tim Nollen, analyst at Macquarie, told Yahoo Finance, noting FAST providers must utilize a different strategic approach compared to other streamers given their lack of premium or exclusive content.

"A lack of premium content means they have to be effective at using technology to target the users that they do have," Nollen said. "It's a large audience, but it may not be a particularly engaged audience. I think they will be successful at using technology to target those users. But it might be in a somewhat different manner."