FAST sports programming growth outpaces channel expansion, Gracenote finds

Sports programming on free ad-supported streaming television services grew at more than twice the rate of sports channel expansion over the past year, according to Gracenote‘s Q3 2026 Data Hub analysis.

The number of FAST channels classified as sports increased 13.8% year over year to 264 in July 2026, Gracenote said. Over the same period, unique sports program titles rose 31.2%, while individual games and events increased 37.5%.

Sports now accounts for 5% of top SVOD catalogs

The figures showed that sports growth extended beyond the launch of new dedicated channels. Gracenote separately found sports programming on 20 FAST channels outside the sports category in July.

Sports programming also grew faster than the broader FAST market. Global FAST channel count increased 17.5% year over year to 2,172, while total video distribution rose 18.6% and TV program titles increased 19.4%.

Among major FAST channel genres, news and commentary recorded the fastest channel growth at 52.9% year over year. Entertainment channels increased 19.7%, comedy grew 20.2% and reality rose 7.3%.

FAST channel growth also varied by market. Channel counts increased 23.3% in Canada, 21.5% in Germany and 21.3% in the U.K., compared with 9.4% growth in the U.S.

Gracenote also found that 51.7% of programming on global FAST channels was produced in 2020 or later, compared with 36.3% of content across the six subscription video-on-demand services tracked by its Data Hub.

Among five SVOD services available for consistent year-over-year comparisons, total content increased 10%, TV episode volume rose 16.6% and movie volume increased 8.9%.

Advertisement

The Data Hub tracks programming across Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, Disney+, HBO Max, Netflix and Paramount+, as well as more than 2,170 FAST channels. Gracenote said its Q3 reporting separately measured program titles and individual episodes, games and events to distinguish catalog breadth from the volume of programming distributed under those titles.