Football’s path to FAST profitability

Football has established a significant presence on FAST in recent years, making its first major splash with the launch of FIFA+ on Samsung TV in 2023, according to TeleGraff Media president William "Bill" Graff. But the sport's growth on FAST and streaming in general, where it is growing significantly faster than it is on broadcast, has come as the result of improvements in ad-stitching technology and sponsors' growing recognition that streaming is where the audience is and the data value of streaming viewers. Graff provides a capsule history of the sport's ascendancy on ad-supported and subscription-based streaming and a snapshot of where it stands now (including Apple's recently extended MLS broadcast deal) in this discussion with Chris Pfaff Tech Media's Chris Pfaff at Streaming Media Connect 2026.

The state of live sport streaming piracy in 2026

Premium live sports, from football and cricket to basketball and American football, remain the primary target of streaming pirates in 2026, with the majority of aggressive gatecrashers looking to recast and simulcast high-profile streams while the match is live and its value is highest, according to BuyDRM CEO Christopher Levy in this conversation with Help Me Stream's Timothy Fore-Siglin at Streaming Media Connect 2026. Levy goes on to describe the forms these recasts typically take, the sophisticated strategies pirates use, and the challenges of stopping them, while Sargeway's Sarge Sargent chimes in to discuss the material and opportunity costs of live sport streaming piracy and what that means for streaming operators.

How to maximise observability in remote streaming pipelines

Cloud and remote production workflows have changed the game for live streaming, enabling significant CapEx and OpEx reductions, making it possible to achieve the same results with smaller and more efficiently deployed and largely off-site crews and reducing hardware footprints. But do all of the gains in operational efficiency that remote and distributed production provide come at the expense of real-time observability? It definitely brought new challenges on that end, according to Telestream director of product management Ken Haren, who explores these challenges and changes in best practices for software-defined observability and live-stream diagnostics that have come with the shift to remote production in this discussion with Zixi SVP of business development Emeka Okoli and Eyevinn Technology media solution specialist and VP of sales and business development Magnus Svensson at Streaming Media Connect 2026.

Streaming cloud migration is more about ops and orchestration than tech

While cloud migration in streaming is often characterised as a primary technological, hardware-to-software shift, SVT (Swedish Television) Group Manager, Production Development Madelen Ottoson argues in this clip from Streaming Media Connect 2026 that the biggest transformation occurs on the operations end. What's more, she tells Eyevinn Technology Media Solution Specialist Magnus Svensson, some aspects of the workflow will always remain on-prem even as operations shift, and Live Sports LLC Executive Director Jef Kethley chimes in that the biggest challenges in transitioning to cloud stem from the orchestrational demands of building out new infrastructure regardless of the hardware/software, cloud/on-prem mix.

Globo’s best practices for World Cup 2026 live streaming ad insertion

Globo director of adtech Ana Beaklini says latency has traditionally been the biggest problem the Brazil-based Globo has faced in its efforts to provide seamless ad insertion for high-stakes, high-concurrency, ultra-low-latency live events like the World Cup. In this conversation with Streaming Media contributing editor Nadine Krefetz at Streaming Media Connect 2026, Beaklini explains how Globo has addressed this issue and the best practices the company will implement at massive scale for upcoming World Cup live streams and OTA broadcasts and AI's role in hyper-personalising Globo's live ad decisioning.

Best Practices for Seamless Live Streaming Failover

When a CDN fails during high-stakes, large-scale live streams, is seamless failover to an alternate CDN the standard expectation in 2026? Are there no excuses left for anything but blip-free CDN switches in the current streaming climate? BT Group's Ian Parr, TATA's Corey Smith, DAZN's James Pearce, and MTech Sport's Matt Stagg weigh in on the current state of play for live CDN switching and how to ensure failover success in this clip from Streaming Media Connect 2026.

Overlay Ads and the Streaming Ad Tech State of Play

IAB Tech Lab's Jill Wittkopp reviews the state of streaming ad tech innovation and emerging ad formats and discusses evolving definitions and standards for squeezebacks, side-by-sides, double boxes, and other types of overlay ads in this discussion with Ring Digital, LLC's Brian Ring at Streaming Media Connect 2026.

How to Monitor Live Streams for Optimal Ad Server Performance

From an observability standpoint and eyes on glass, what are the key metrics to watch to determine if ad insertion is going smoothly during a live stream? Altitude TV's Dave Zur, Sargeway LLC's Sarge Sargent, Qualabs' David Hassoun, and FanServ's C.J. Leonard discuss challenges and best practices for monitoring live streaming ad performance in this clip from Streaming Media Connect 2026.

AI-Enriched Metadata Drives Better CTV Content Discovery

Why are streaming services, channels, and platforms across the CTV and OTT ecosystems turning to AI/ML-enhanced metadata to remove the friction from CTV content discovery and improve user experiences? Cineverse's Tony Huidor and SUMM8's Jamie Mackinlay discuss how AI-enriched metadata and natural language interfaces are enhancing and transforming discovery and bringing users closer to the content they want to watch in this discussion with Integration Therapy's Rebecca Avery at Streaming Media Connect 2026.

Leveraging SGAI for Longtail Live Sport

With sports that aren't orchestrated for built-in TV ad breaks and a traditional broadcast run of show, SGAI provides critical advantages for monetising sport content without pulling fans out of the action and causing them to miss key moments in the game. FloSports Product Manager, Ad Tech Adair Lyden explains these and other reasons why FloSports is embracing server-guided ad insertion (SGAI) as a good fit for their content and programming model and provides an early look at how it's working for them in this conversation with RingDigital's Brian Ring at Streaming Media Connect 2026.

Why to invest in lowering sport streaming latency in 2026

The knock against streaming for live sport has always been higher latency than broadcast, and the agony of hearing your cable-watching neighbor cheer a goal before it happens on your screen. One could argue that live-streamed sport isn't really live in this scenario. But given the costs and challenges of lowering latency, is it really worth the investment, or should sport streamers be prioritising other engineering challenges or elements of the fan experience? MTech Sport's Matt Stagg, DAZN's James Pearce, BT Group's Ian Parr, and TATA Communications' Corey Smith discuss the current business case for lowering sport streaming latency at Streaming Media Connect 2026.

How to Achieve Seamless Shoppable CTV

What strategic and technological innovations are in the pipeline to facilitate more seamless shoppable CTV experiences? Fuse Media's Karl Meyer, Disney's Lexi Swift, Spaceback's Joe Hall, and LG's Chester Goodson address future prospects for enhanced shoppability in this discussion with moderator Chris Pfaff from Streaming Media Connect 2026.

Has Resilience Replaced Scale as Live Sport Streaming’s Chief Concern?

When it comes to withstanding traffic spikes and other factors that stress-test live streams, "your infrastructure is only as strong as the weakest part of the chain," notes DAZN EVP James Pearce in this clip from Streaming Media Connect 2026. So has the resiliency of streaming architecture become a greater factor in livestream success than insufficient scalability or CDN capacity? MTech Sport's Matt Stagg, TATA Communications' Corey Smith, and BT Group's Ian Parr join the debate over where streams are most likely to break down today and whether CDN capacity problems have indeed been solved in this clip from Streaming Media Connect 2026.

Provisioning for Live Streaming Scale in Real Time at Al Jazeera and YouTube

How do large-volume streamers anticipate, provision for, and capacity-plan for real-time traffic bursts during tentpole and breaking news events? Al Jazeera Senior Streaming Media Architect Dilip Bharadwaj and YouTube Head of Live OTT Engineering Sean McCarthy discuss real-world challenges and preparation and remediation strategies in this discussion with SVTA Subject Matter Expert Bhavesh Upadhyaya at Streaming Media Connect 2026.

Middle-Mile Resiliency and Delivering Live Streams at Scale

As the last mile of streaming becomes increasingly predictable, according to CacheFly CTO and Founder Matt Levine, the focus of streaming professionals working to enhance reliability in live event delivery shifts to the middle mile. Levine and YouTube Head of OTT Live Engineering Sean McCarthy explore what workflow and architecture elements constitute the middle mile and what it takes to navigate middle-mile variability most effectively origin-to-edge and designing workflows that scale in this conversation with SVTA Subject Matter Expert Bhavesh Upadhyaya at Streaming Media Connect 2026.

Inside the CTV Contextual Advertising Toolset

CTV contextual advertising, like many things in life, is all about making good decisions, and making informed decisions based on a wealth of data means leveraging the right tools—often AI-driven—to gather and distill and interpret that data. Sometimes developing sound contextual media plans involves working with in-house tech and other times it means working with third-party tools, as Team Whistle (a DAZN company) president Joe Caporoso and Intersection CEO Chris Grosso explain in this discussion with SVTA subject matter expert Bhavesh Upadhyaya in this clip from Streaming Media Connect 2026.

Key Contextual Data Points for Targeted and Brand-Safe CTV Advertising

Matching ads to programming context and audience interests is theoretically what CTV and OTT can do better than traditional linear television, but it requires gathering data and leveraging it effectively to make sound contextual calls. Philo Head of Advertising Partnerships Aulden Kaye Yi and Roku Head of Supply Side Ad Platform Charlie Goodman discuss what works on their platforms and how their teams approach contextual advertising in this conversation with SVTA Subject Matter Expert Bhavesh Upadhyaya at Streaming Media Connect 2026.

How Audience Insights Drive NBA Media Decision-Making

How do "actionable insights" translate into concrete actions when it comes to media deals, partnerships, and brand growth in major sports leagues? In this clip, NBA VP, Global Media Insights Michelle Auguste explains how audience insights have informed the NBA's new 11-year media deal as well as the league's impending Euro League international expansion recently announced by NBA commissioner Adam Silver.

Sneak Preview: Best Content Bets: Programming Decisions That Maximize Fill, Yield, & Scale

On Thursday, February 26, Rebecca Avery, owner and principal of Integration Therapy, will moderate the Streaming Media Connect panel "Best Content Bets: Programming Decisions That Maximise Fill, Yield, & Scale." Curating the right content mix is the foundation of scalable streaming channel monetisation. This session breaks down the art and science of building a content library that draws and engages viewers and shows how data-driven programming decisions impact ad fill rates and cultivate sustainable growth across platforms.

Optimising Dubbing for Streaming Dialogue and Singing in the AI Era

Generative AI has transformed the technology, the workflow, and arguably the ethics of dubbing dialogue for TV and movies in recent years, with the costly and time-consuming traditional approach of a voice actor, director, and technical crew gathering in a studio for live audio replacement very much a thing of the past. The perception now is that generative AI can easily (and some would say dangerously) produce or replicate virtually any voice, but Dubformer's Anton Dvorkovich and Google's Nick Manoochehri insist that generating the desired voice and refining it toward emotional precision and perfection remain challenging and as much art as science—for dialogue and especially for singing—as they explain in this conversation with DigitalGlue's Philip Grossman and PADEM Media Group's Allan McLennan at Streaming Media 2025.