According to the Q4 2025 update from Gracenote’s Global Video Data Hub, the global streaming landscape continues to expand, albeit at a slower pace than previous quarters. Across the five major SVOD providers, the total volume of unique programs reached 105,200, reflecting a 2.3% quarter-on-quarter increase. When counting individual episodes and competitions, the total surged to 662,300 programs—up 2.7% from Q3. This marks a deceleration from the 9.7% growth observed in Q3 at the program level.
Amazon Prime Video maintained its leadership as the largest distributor of SVOD content, accounting for 69% of the total distribution. However, Disney+ is gaining ground in sports content, having increased its sports programming by 29% in Q4. Disney+ now commands 33.2% of the sports programming share across the five major platforms, narrowing Amazon’s lead to just 0.7 percentage points. Overall, sports programming rose 9.3% across SVOD services, with total sports content—at the game and event level—climbing 10% since Q3.
Paramount+ experienced a nearly 8% drop in exclusive programming since Q1 2025 and currently has the lowest share of exclusive content among the top five SVOD players, at just 60%.
Genre and mood trends remained steady, with drama continuing to dominate (comprising nearly 25% of all content), and "tense" identified as the most common mood descriptor, associated with over 36% of programming. Notably, content from before 1990 grew by 21.5% year-on-year, while programming produced from 2020 onward is up 25.4%, indicating a dual appetite for both vintage and recent productions.
In the FAST (Free Ad-supported Streaming TV) segment, growth accelerated more rapidly. The number of FAST channels globally rose to 2,012, representing an 8.9% increase since Q3. Canada emerged as a key growth market, with a 29.1% jump in channels, positioning it just behind Germany. Other notable increases include Germany (+12.4%), the UK (+6.5%), and the US (+5.9%).
FAST also saw a dramatic increase in sports content, outpacing SVOD with a 20.4% rise in sports programming at the episode or competition level, and a 17.5% rise at the series level. Genre-specific gains included action (+12.8%), horror (+13.7%), and nature (+14.3%), while romance and western genres declined by 8% and 4.5%, respectively.
These trends suggest that while SVOD expansion is slowing, content strategies are shifting towards sports, genre diversification, and tapping into both legacy and newly produced libraries. The competitive dynamics between platforms—particularly in sports and exclusivity—will likely define strategic moves going into 2026.
Related News
Markets
Distribution
