Gracenote, the content data business unit of Nielsen, has found that sports programme offerings across the top five SVOD services jumped 52% year-over-year.
This sharp increase, identified in the latest Gracenote Data Hub update, underscores the importance of sports content (live games and related content) to providers’ audience engagement strategies, the company stated.
The research also found that over the past year, Paramount+ has vaulted past Amazon Prime Video and Netflix to lead in streaming sports programming at the individual game and event level. Following its acquisition of Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) broadcast rights from ESPN starting in January 2026, the service now delivers more than twice the sports content of any subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) platform, up 219% year-over-year. During the same period, the Disney+ sports catalogue contracted 23%.
In other findings, streaming content growth has extended beyond subscription platforms to no-cost, no-commitment services. Gracenote’s analysis of 2,060 FAST channels available worldwide revealed that sports content on FAST grew 30% year-over-year. With more than 200 dedicated news channels now available, news programming on free ad-supported streaming services increased 58%. Additionally, the number of movies and TV shows available on FAST rose 26% and 24%, respectively, year-over-year.
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