Sports content accounts for fastest-growing portion of top global SVOD catalogs

HBO Max, a new addition to Gracenote Data Hub, is home to the most sports programming among major streamers

NEW YORK May 21, 2026 New analysis by Gracenote, the content intelligence business unit of Nielsen, shows that sports has quickly become a foundational part of the subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) content mix and now makes up 5% of overall programming on leading services. HBO Max currently offers the most sports content among major global streamers tracked by the Gracenote Data Hub, accounting for 35% of available sports. At the individual game and event level, HBO Max offers 42% of sports content.

The Gracenote Data Hub analysis was expanded to include HBO Max as of the just released Q2 2026 update. Going forward, the service's programming will be tracked quarterly alongside that of Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, Disney , Netflix and Paramount .

Huge growth in sports content on global SVOD providers In November 2024, sports made up just 1.4% of the Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, Disney , Netflix and Paramount catalogs, according to the inaugural Gracenote Data Hub analysis. In the past 18 months, these five providers have more than doubled that distribution to 3.3%. With HBO Max now included in Gracenote's analysis, sports rises to 5% of all content. There are now nearly 38,500 sports shows, episodes, sports games and events on the leading global SVOD services.

After HBO Max, the next most sports-heavy destinations are Amazon Prime Video (25%), Netflix (16%) and Disney (14%). Focusing on the individual game and event level, Paramount emerged as the leader in sports programming in the Q1 2026 Data Hub, released in February. Now, Paramount is home to 30% of games, events and sports show episodes.

Newly added HBO Max jumps ahead of Paramount by offering 42% of this sports content. Paramount Skydance's impending acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery should make the new combined company a key player for streaming sports content globally.

FAST expansion continues Another key finding from the Q2 update is the number of FAST channels has increased by 19% year-over-year. Entertainment, sports, news and reality are the most predominant channel genres, with news channels exhibiting the most annual growth (57%) year-over-year. At the same time, FAST serves as a significant distribution channel for live sports from all over the world. More than one-third of content on sports channels on FAST (37%) is live sports events.

About The Gracenote Data Hub Launched in November 2024, the Gracenote Data Hub provides insight into the content available on the now six leading global SVOD services and 2,120 FAST channels. The resource taps Gracenote Global Video Data, the industry's most comprehensive trove of content intelligence powering advanced content search, discovery and recommendations capabilities. Updated quarterly, the resource tracks how leading SVOD catalogs and FAST channels are evolving over time and what these shifts signal.

About Gracenote Gracenote is the content intelligence business unit of Nielsen. We standardize the way the global media and entertainment ecosystem indexes content and associated metadata, allowing it to flow between creators, distributors, platforms and advertisers. By providing unmatched depth across 50M titles and 80K channels and catalogs, we power the modern search, discovery and navigation experiences that connect people to the TV, movies, music and sports they love-in 70 languages across 80 countries. For more information, visit Gracenote.com or follow us on LinkedIn.

Media Contact Mark Yamada

mark.yamada@nielsen.com

LINK:	https://www.nielsen.com/news-center/2026/sports-content-accounts-for-f...
	See more stories from arbitron

Most recent headlines