Sports programming grew its footprint across the streaming landscape in 2025

Amid its fragmented glory, connected television (CTV) continues to grow its share of our time with TV, eclipsing traditional TV viewing beginning in Q1 2025¹. And while content libraries grow and distribution channels multiply, sports have become the hottest commodity across the landscape, with SVOD services, FAST channels and other CTV channels vying for a piece of the action.

From a streaming perspective, the five global SVOD services tracked in Gracenote’s Data Hub grew their sports catalogs by 52% year-over-year, with competition programming (games, matches, tournaments, etc.) accounting for the bulk of the increase. Given the linear, scheduled nature of FAST channels, the annual increase in sports programming was more moderate, but it still increased by nearly 15%. On FAST channels, competitions account for 96% of all sports programming. On SVOD, they account for 34.5%.

It’s worth noting that not all competition programming is new and live. Several SVOD services have extensive back catalogs of archival league competitions, including Disney+ and Paramount+. The same is true across the FAST landscape, as league-operated channels (e.g., NFL, NBA, UFC) distribute a mix of recent and historical game and match replays.

65% of TV viewers are likely to pay for a service because of its live sports offerings

And while sports content remains a very small component of all that’s available across the streaming landscape, the increases are noteworthy and lucrative, given the massive appeal among TV viewers. In fact, 65% of TV viewers² say they’re likely to pay for a service because of its live sports offerings.

Sports content on Paramount+ has increased by nearly 220%

Across global SVOD services, Paramount+ grew its catalog the most at the individual program level, increasing its programming by nearly 220% over the past year. The increase represents a mix of NFL and NCAA football games that air on CBS, all UFC events, UEFA Champions League and other European knockout games, PGA events that air on CBS and the addition of archival UFC fights and top European league soccer matches.

Apple TV grew its sports content by nearly 30%, followed by Amazon Prime and Netflix, at 14.7% and 10.4%, respectively. On the flipside, Disney+ reduced its sports catalog by 22.5% over the same period. Much of the reduction reflected the removal of UFC programming following the end of the distribution deal between TKO Group and ESPN. Paramount+ became the new home to UFC in January 2026, kicking off a new seven-year deal with TKO that trades the previous pay-per-view structure for a straight subscription model.

The growing competition for sports rights among providers has further fragmented distribution, as three of the five SVOD providers are now vying for the biggest share of sports programming. Notably, Amazon Prime and Netflix have each grown their respective shares of the programming on SVOD services. Comparatively, the removal of the UFC programming from Disney+ at the end of the year reduced the platform’s share of sports content to less than one quarter.

Live sports on FAST are on the rise 

Sports programming is also gaining ground across free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST), as the number of sports channels increased nearly 12% year-over-year. Perhaps more noteworthy, however, is the fact that competition events represent 96% of the sports programming distributed across global FAST channels. 

More importantly, however, is the amount of competition programming that’s new and live. In fact, the amount of live games accounted for more than one-third of all sports programming on FAST channels between August and November 2025.

FAST and SVOD have different distribution strategies for live sports

While sports programming continues to rise across the streaming landscape, the distribution strategies for live games across SVOD and FAST are notably different:

• Games that are broadcast on SVOD services, such as Friday Night Baseball on Apple TV and Thursday Night Football on Amazon Prime Video, are typically exclusive to subscribers and are not available elsewhere.
• FAST channels distribute sports events that are not exclusive (e.g., they are also available on other channels and services) as well as events from other markets that are not available otherwise. Sixty-seven percent of the live sports in December 2025 was for non-U.S. league competitions, providing U.S. audiences with free access to a wide range of major competitions like the Africa Cup of Nations, men’s and women’s UEFA Champions League, the Australia v England Ashes cricket series and various top European soccer leagues.

While a rich source of entertainment for audiences, the immense amount of content available, combined with the ongoing migration of sports to streaming services, does come with certain risks, especially through the lens of consumer enjoyment. Fifty-three percent of U.S. TV viewers feel overwhelmed by the amount of streaming video services and content available, and 32% say it’s having a negative impact on their TV experience². 

The congestion, magnified by the lack of a universal scheduling guide, amplifies frustrations about how to find specific programs, especially live sports. In fact, a recent Gracenote survey found that two-thirds of viewers want their service of choice to be able to tell them where to find a specific program, including sports, even if it’s on a different service. 

The important takeaway here is that content will always reign supreme, but only if the audience knows where to find it.

For additional streaming data and insight, visit the Gracenote Data Hub.

Notes

1. In Q1 2025, time spent with CTV accounted for 48% of U.S. viewers’ time; time with live TV accounted for 46%; In Q2, CTV accounted for 49%; in Q3, it accounted for 51%; Nielsen Audience Insights Data (Nielsen NPOWER, Nielsen Media Impact)
2. 2025 Gracenote State of Play report