US Streaming Market Now Spans 275 SVoD Services, Parks Finds

The United States streaming market now counts 275 subscription video-on-demand services, 141 advertising-based video-on-demand services, and 60 FAST platforms, according to research from Parks Associates. The figures come from the firm's Streaming Video Tracker and were published on November 3, 2026. For operators, content distributors and advertising teams, the headline number is simple: consumers face nearly 500 distinct streaming propositions before accounting for overlap between categories.

What exactly did Parks Associates count?

The research house measured the US market across every major business model in streaming. Beyond the 275 SVoD and 141 AVoD services, the Streaming Video Tracker identifies several additional layers of the market:

• 243 premium SVoD services, the largest single category the firm tracks
• 85 transactional video-on-demand services, where consumers pay per title rather than per month
• 110 FAST channels, the free ad-supported linear-style channels that mimic broadcast scheduling
• 55 ad-supported SVoD services, subscription tiers that carry advertising at a reduced price
• eight virtual multichannel video programming distributors, the thin slice of the market carrying live channel bundles

Parks Associates notes that categories overlap. Streaming providers increasingly combine subscription, advertising and free content offerings within a single brand or app. That means the totals are not additive. A service counted among the 243 premium SVoD platforms may also appear among the 55 ad-supported SVoD services if it operates a cheaper advertising tier. Practitioners reading the data should treat each figure as the size of a business model, not a census of distinct companies.

The FAST numbers illustrate the overlap point directly. The tracker records both 60 FAST platforms and 110 FAST channels. A platform is the destination a viewer opens; a channel is the content stream inside it. The spread between the two numbers shows how FAST operators are stuffing multiple ad-supported channels into single destinations to maximize advertising inventory per user session.

Why does the mix of models matter?

The composition of the market has shifted decisively away from a pure subscription story. Subscription remains the largest category at 275 services. But advertising-based and free models now account for 141 AVoD services and 60 FAST platforms, and ad-supported tiers sit inside 55 nominally subscription products. Michael Goodman, Director of Entertainment Research at Parks Associates, framed the shift plainly.

"The streaming market is evolving beyond traditional subscription models, with companies testing new combinations of advertising, premium content, and free services," Goodman said.

The second half of his comment carries the harder message for the industry. "Streaming providers must identify sustainable revenue models that balance advertising, pricing, content investment, and customer retention," Goodman said.

Read together, the two statements describe a market in transition. Providers are no longer competing solely on content libraries behind a monthly fee. They are assembling hybrid propositions: a premium tier, a cheaper ad-supported tier, and free FAST channels, often under one roof. The research attributes this to providers chasing both consumer attention and advertising revenue simultaneously.

What does this mean for practitioners?

For pay-TV operators and telcos bundling streaming services, the scale of the market changes the aggregation problem. With 275 SVoD services and 141 AVoD services available, no distribution partner can carry everything. Curation and bundling economics become the differentiator, not raw catalogue size.

For advertising buyers, the numbers define the supply picture. The 141 AVoD services, 60 FAST platforms and 110 FAST channels collectively represent the addressable connected-TV advertising inventory in the United States, and the 55 ad-supported SVoD tiers add premium content to that pool.

For the providers themselves, Goodman's warning about sustainable revenue models is the operative finding. Content investment, pricing and customer retention now have to be balanced against advertising yield across all those hybrid tiers. The sheer count of services suggests saturation: more than 500 tracked offerings across overlapping categories compete for the same household budgets and the same advertising dollars.

Parks Associates positions the Streaming Video Tracker as an ongoing measurement product, and the November 2026 release reflects the market's current state. The trajectory the data captures — subscription services layering on advertising, FAST operators multiplying channels, and vMVPDs remaining a niche of just eight players — indicates that consolidation and model-hybridization will define the next phase of the US streaming market rather than new entrants expanding it.