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Gracenote: Live Sports Program Streaming Surges 52% Year-Over-Year, Led by Paramount+
February 19, 2026
Gracenote, the content data business unit of Nielsen, has found that sports program offerings across the top five subscription video-on-demand (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.
Over the past year, Paramount+ has vaulted past Prime Video and Netflix to lead in streaming sports programming at the individual game and event level. Following its acquisition of UFC broadcast rights from ESPN starting in January, the service now delivers more than twice the sports content of any SVOD platform, up 219%. During the same period, the Disney+ sports catalog contracted 23%.
At the same time, streaming content growth has extended beyond subscription platforms to free ad-supported no-cost, no-commitment services. Gracenote’s analysis of 2,060 FAST channels available worldwide revealed that sports content on FAST grew 30%, led by the live-stream of Super Bowl LIX on AVOD platform Tubi on Feb. 9, 2025.
With more than 200 dedicated news channels now available, news programming on free ad-supported streaming services increased 58%. Movies and TV shows available on FAST rose 26% and 24%, respectively, according to Gracenote.
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