Nielsen’s data business Gracenote has expanded its Data Hub service to include information from 1,850 free, ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) channels amid an uptick in the availability of free content streams, the company announced on Wednesday.
According to a new analysis of the FAST sector, Gracenote says the number of FAST channels available to streamers rose 14 percent during the second quarter (Q2) of this year and have grown 76 percent since 2023.
Gracenote’s Data Hub was initially built to measure the catalogs of major subscription video on demand (SVOD) services, including Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV Plus, Disney Plus, Netflix and Paramount Plus, but has expanded over time to include content data from FAST channels and programming as well. Data Hub now tracks more than 645,000 television shows, movies and sports titles across SVOD libraries and more than 197,000 programs available on FAST channels.
Gracenote says FAST channels are carrying a larger share of recently-produced content compared to SVOD platforms. Nearly half the content available on FAST channels were created within the last five years, compared to one-third of titles available on SVOD platforms. Expanding to the last 15 years, FAST accounted for nearly 80 percent of available content, while SVOD reached 68.5 percent.
Television programming dominates both categories, but it is more prevalent on FAST. About 93.1 percent of FAST catalogs consist of episodic television, while 88.8 percent of titles across top subscription services fall into that category.
Sports was the fastest-growing content type among SVOD platforms in the last quarter, with a 13.2 percent increase. Movies rose 10 percent and television titles expanded 9.2 percent. FAST channels showed a different trend: Sports content dropped 3.7 percent in the last quarter but remained up 14 percent since the beginning of the year.
Other data points from the latest update include:
Documentaries made up the largest share of FAST programming at 16.1 percent.
Drama ranked second at 10.6 percent, followed by news at 9.9 percent.
News was the fastest-growing FAST genre with a 37 percent increase in the last quarter, followed by horror with a 30 percent gain.
SVOD platforms expanded their overall content libraries by 9.8 percent in Q2. Amazon added the most titles with a 12.6 percent increase, while Paramount Plus grew its catalog by 6.4 percent.
Gracenote said the Data Hub draws from its global video dataset, which covers content in more than 70 languages and over 80 countries. The company positioned the resource as a tool for video platforms, studios and advertisers to inform distribution, licensing and media buying strategies, and as a reference for analysts tracking the growth of streaming.
