The global free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) business continued to add channels over the past year, with news and sports programming becoming larger parts of the FAST ecosystem, according to new data from Gracenote shared with The Desk this week.
Gracenote’s latest update to its Data Hub found more than 2,170 FAST channels worldwide by July, up 17.5 percent from nearly 1,850 channels logged one year ago.
FAST channel growth was stronger in several international markets than in the U.S. Gracenote said the number of FAST channels increased 21.3 percent in the U.K., 21.5 percent in Germany and 23.3 percent in Canada. The U.S. remained the largest tracked market, with 1,442 FAST channels in July, but its year-over-year growth was lower at 9.4 percent.
Entertainment remained the largest FAST channel genre, with 395 channels in July, up 19.7 percent from a year earlier. Sports followed with 264 channels, up 13.8 percent. News and commentary was the fastest-growing major genre, rising 52.9 percent to 211 channels.
The data suggest sports programming is expanding faster than dedicated sports FAST channels: Gracenote said sports program titles increased 31.2 percent year over year, while individual sports games and events rose 37.5 percent. That compares with 13.8 percent growth in sports-classified FAST channels. Sports programming also appeared on 20 FAST channels outside the sports category in July.
Overall FAST video distribution, including programs, episodes and movies, increased 18.6 percent from a year earlier. TV program titles rose 19.4 percent, while TV programs plus individual episodes increased 14.2 percent.
The report tracks programming across more than 2,100 FAST channels and six global subscription streaming services: Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, Disney Plus, HBO Max, Netflix and Paramount Plus.
FAST catalogs also skew newer than the content available on the six SVOD services tracked by Gracenote. The report found 51.7 percent of global FAST programming was produced in 2020 or later, compared with 36.3 percent across the six subscription services. Programming produced before 1990 represented 13.3 percent of the FAST total.
U.S.-produced FAST programming increased more than 9 percent year over year, though its share of global FAST programming declined to 38.4 percent from 41.7 percent. Programming produced in India grew 702.7 percent, but still represented just 2.9 percent of the global FAST total.
On the SVOD side, Gracenote said total content across five comparable services — Prime Video, Apple TV, Disney Plus, Netflix and Paramount Plus — increased 10 percent year over year. Movie volume rose 8.9 percent, TV program titles increased 10.3 percent and TV episode volume climbed 16.6 percent.
Disney Plus posted the strongest TV program-title growth among selected services, rising 40.4 percent, followed by Apple TV at 14.7 percent. Netflix declined 2.8 percent by that measure. For movies, Disney Plus grew 19.1 percent and Prime Video rose 11.3 percent, while Netflix declined 8.6 percent.
Prime Video accounted for 66.9 percent of program-title content across the six SVOD services, reflecting broad catalog breadth. Its share fell to 41.4 percent when individual episodes were included. Disney Plus accounted for 8.3 percent of program titles but 18.9 percent of episode-inclusive content, while HBO Max represented 6.5 percent of program titles and 13.8 percent of episode-inclusive content.
Sports distribution varied sharply depending on how content was counted. HBO Max accounted for 35.1 percent of sports program titles across the six SVOD services but 53.4 percent of individual games and events. Prime Video represented 25 percent of sports program titles but 9.7 percent of games and events.
Gracenote said the distinction between program-title counts and episode, game and event counts is important because the measures answer different questions: one reflects catalog breadth, while the other captures the volume of programming distributed beneath those titles.
Gracenote’s Data Hub is available to view by clicking or tapping here.
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