Presenting … the 2026 European Innovation Awards Winners

After a whirlwind voting cycle, we're delighted to reveal the winners of the 2026 Streaming Media European Innovation Awards. Now in its 18th year, this year's programme attracted more than 1,100 participants who cast 7,500-plus votes across 13 distinct categories. Congratulations to all of the triumphant 2026 Innovation Awards winners, top vote-getters and runners-up alike!

Action figure: tabulating and managing streaming TCO

While total cost of ownership spans an encyclopedic number of operational touchpoints, managing a video P&L ultimately comes down to making targeted, high-impact architectural choices.

Fans forward: creating lean-in engagement with personalised next-gen sport streaming experiences

While many of today's sport streams remain as linear, lean-back, and traditional as the fans who enjoy them, next-gen platforms are increasingly delivering individualised sport experiences. How are today's forward-facing platforms making personalisation feel natural rather than overwhelming? And how effective are these new engagement features in attracting younger, digital-native fans whose expectations and tastes are shaped by social rather than old-school linear TV?

The cord-cutter fallacy and the current subscription streaming landscape

When it comes to the so-called cord-cutting trend, the question we ask should not be, "Has the cord been successfully cut?" Rather, it should be, "Where do the new strands run to and from?"

How 5G Is Evolving from a Network into a Creative Tool

Back in 2018, I stood at Wembley Sta­dium watching the world's first live sports broadcast over a public 5G network. The EE Wembley Cup marked a genuine milestone for the industry. As director of mobile at BT Sport, I was heavily involved in exploring how 5G could transform sports production. BT Sport produced the event remotely for EE using public 5G, demonstrating that live sports production could move beyond the constraints of traditional connectivity. Public 5G, remote production, network slicing, and untethered cameras were all part of the vision. The message was simple: 5G would change sports production forever. At the time, it felt revolutionary. And to be fair, it was.

AI's Streaming Stack: Graphical Representations

The companies covered here offer some very interesting approaches for using AI to accomplish what I would describe, essentially, as graphical representation in three very different areas: AI-powered UX for building live-streaming workflows, AI interpretation for ad targeting, and AI-generated video clip preview for streaming services.

ICYMI: Streaming Media Connect May 2026

Streaming Media Connect May 2026 was all about delivering and monetizing sports streaming featured exclusive keynote fireside chats with Matt Graham of the Tennis Channel and Maria Malinowitsch of Verimatrix and a slate of expert panels packed with speakers from DAZN, Globo, Fubo, OneFootball, FloSports, NESN, IAB Tech Lab, Telestream, Zixi, BuyDRM, ViewLift, CacheFly, Servers.com, Tiledmedia, Norsk, and more. Check out a playlist with Streaming Media Connect sessions on Streaming Media's YouTube channel to catch the sessions you missed and revel in the ones you want to relive through the magic of VOD.

This World Cup, CTV Becomes the New Stadium

Major sporting events once revolved around a single screen, with broadcast schedules dictating when audiences tuned in and how campaigns were planned. The coming World Cup will deliver this same audience scale and campaign buzz, but viewing now unfolds across multiple screens and multiple connected devices within the same household, often at the same time.

CAPIs Won't Solve CTV's Outcomes Problem Until Another Key Issue Is Fixed

Before we measure what an ad achieved, shouldn't we first be able to confirm what the ad actually ran against?

Live Sport Is Powering the Next Wave of Streaming Innovation

Live sport viewers expect a flawless streaming experience with ultra-low latency and immersive features that bring them closer to the action. At the same time, the rising cost of sport rights is forcing service providers to rethink how they maximise return on investment. The result is a perfect storm of innovation, where advances in AI, cloud infrastructure, and ecosystem partnerships are reshaping the future of streaming.

Streaming Year in Review 2026

Two stories dominated streaming media in 2025: Netflix versus the rest and YouTube takes TV. YouTube may be the bigger story.

Streamticker: The Biggest Streaming Mergers and Acquisitions of 2025

Here is a month-by-month roundup of the streaming industry's most momentous mergers and acquisitions of 2025 (excluding the competing Paramount Skydance and Netflix bids for Warner Bros. Discovery—a drama that just turned definitively in Paramount's favour at press time).

The State of Streaming Codecs 2026

Streaming codec adoption used to be an engineering abstraction governed by RD curves, BD-rate tables, and roadmap slides that no one outside of R&D ever considered. Over the last 15 months, codec adoption decisions have morphed into a much broader discussion, involving C-level execs from finance and legal. While the precursors to this transition occurred pre-2025, the situation coalesced in 2025. During the same period, we saw one codec step to the front (AV1) and another shrink before our eyes (VVC).

The State of Media & Entertainment Streaming 2026

In last year's The State of Media & Entertainment Streaming, I wrote about the likelihood of studios and platforms with fewer subscribers than the big three (Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, and Disney) having to collaborate or merge to reduce the costs of content creation and acquisition while growing their userbases in 2025. As predicted last year, some of this movement has begun to happen, but not necessarily with the smaller players.

The State of Streaming Sustainability 2026

Is it still fashionable to be sustainable, even with AI?

The State of Streaming Monetisation 2026

How are streaming content companies doing? Publishers, creators, and aggregators have traditionally made the majority of their revenue on subscriptions, so why does everyone want to talk about advertising? Ad-supported content is more affordable. Because most streaming consumers have maxed out their subscriptions, leaving the SVOD market saturated, advertising is more likely to be the dominant incremental revenue driver for streaming over the next several years, based on how media companies are talking about themselves and guiding investors.

The State of Shoppable Live TV 2026

In 2025, shoppable live content began to come of age in Europe. Having already achieved massive success in Asia over the last few years, the concept had struggled to gain a foothold in Europe as a viable option for retailers and brands. This changed in 2025, as major platforms and brands began to put significant resources behind the shoppable live concept.

The State of Sport Streaming in Europe

Sport streaming in Europe has entered a new phase. The question is no longer whether live sport can be delivered online at scale. That problem has largely been solved. What now defines the market is something deeper, more structural, and more emotional. The real challenge is how sport streaming becomes sustainable, differentiated, and emotionally resonant in a landscape that is more fragmented, competitive, and complex than at any point in its history.

How to Fight Sports Streaming Fragmentation Fatigue

The fragmentation of sports streaming rights and the proliferation of channels with some matches but not others makes it increasingly difficult for fans to track their teams' upcoming games. Free Live Sports President Cathy Rasenberger, Play Anywhere CSO Pete Scott, Hub Entertainment Research Principal Jon Giegengack, and MTech Sport's Matt Stagg discuss ongoing discoverability challenges and how Free Live Sports, Roku with its Sports Zones, Fox One, the ESPN app, and others are trying to create new sports destinations to counteract sports streaming's disaggregation crisis.

Sports Leagues and Broadcasters Must Tailor Engagement Strategies for Gen Z

Free Live Sports president Cathy Rasenberger argues that sports leagues and broadcasters need to adapt to the ways Gen Z viewers consume content—short-form, social, athlete-centric storylines—if they want to engage and retain younger audiences in this discussion with MTech Sport, Media & Entertainment consultant Matt Stagg, Play Anywhere CSO Pete Scott, and Hub Entertainment Research principal Jon Giegengack from Streaming Media Connect 2025.