Disney has been significantly expanding its sports programming over the past year, following the introduction of ESPN on Disney+ last year and the upcoming launch of the full ESPN version on Disney+ as an add-on later this year. It’s clear that Disney is betting big on the growth of sports.

According to some new details from Nielsen, the total number of unique TV, movie and sports titles offered by Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+, Disney+, Netflix and Paramount+, has grown quarter-over-quarter.  The number of titles has increased approximately by 4,500, or 5%, from February to May, according to a new Gracenote Data Hub release, which tracks quarterly content trends.

The data has shown that Netflix has significantly outpaced all tracked services in total catalogue growth during Q2, increasing available content by 18.2%. The next biggest relative gains were posted by Apple TV+ (3.7%), Amazon Prime Video (3.2%), and Paramount+ (1%).   Currently, Netflix offers 20.1% of the TV shows, movies and sports programs available on major streaming services, up from 17.9% in the previous quarter.   Disney+ has grown its number of titles available by 1.6%.

At the program level, the five top SVOD services grew sports content by 7.8% in Q2. This was almost 2 times the rate of movie expansion and nearly one percentage point more than the rate of TV expansion. Currently, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+ and Netflix are the leading sports players in Gracenote’s analysis, serving as home to 92% of available streaming sports programming, including live games, sports-related news, highlight shows and documentaries. In terms of other content types, TV programs were up 6.9% across all tracked services while movies were up 4%.

Bill Michels, Chief Product Officer at Gracenote, said in a statement regarding the data:

“In the big picture for SVOD, overall content volume continues to rise but the CTV apps making this content available continually shift.  Regardless of program type or any other attribute, effective content discovery helps streamers connect viewers to the entertainment they’ll enjoy most and get the most value out of each of the assets in their catalogs.”

Roger’s Take:  Disney is spending billions of dollars on sports programming, and its plans to bring ESPN directly to streaming are going to have a major impact on how people can watch live sports.  But Amazon and Netflix are also getting more and more involved in sports programming, as they’ve realised it’s one of the few major types of entertainment, that can bring in large audiences for live events.  It’s likely that, with the launch of the full version of ESPN on Disney+ later this year, the amount of content will only increase.

What do you think of this new data?  Let me know on social media!

Roger Palmer

Roger has been a Disney fan since he was a kid and this interest has grown over the years. He has visited Disney Parks around the globe and has a vast collection of Disney movies and collectibles. He is the owner of What's On Disney Plus & DisKingdom. Email: Roger@WhatsOnDisneyPlus.com Twitter: Twitter.com/RogPalmerUK Facebook: Facebook.com/rogpalmeruk

View all posts