MediaKind and Harmonic’s Video Business to Combine, Creating a Leading Streaming-Infrastructure Platform

Combined business will be the #1 independent comprehensive streaming-infrastructure platformBrings together complementary product teams to drive faster advancement across cloud and appliance technologiesFurthers MediaKind's mission to redefine the future of media and entertainment through advanced video technology

Netflix move on WBD means others have to scale fast or die trying

At the start of 2025 Netflix set a target of achieving 430 million subscribers worldwide by 2030. The deal to acquire the streaming platforms not to mention content of Warner Bros. Studios means this is likely an underestimate in both deadline and sheer mass of consumers that now comes under its wing. Netflix has confirmed it will officially acquire Warner Bros in a deal worth $82.7bn, under which Netflix will acquire Warner Bros, including its film and television studios, HBO Max and HBO, but not Discovery Global.

NASA GM & Head of NASA+ Rebecca Sirmons to Keynote Streaming Media Connect December

Streaming Media Connect will launch December 9 with an exclusive Keynote Fireside Chat featuring GM & Head of NASA+ Rebecca Sirmons. Titled "Streaming the Universe with NASA+," the conversation will look at future plans involving streaming the first crewed landing on the Moon in over 50 years. This fireside chat will also explore how NASA and Sirmons' team developed NASA+ and the infrastructure, ops, and workflows that launch live streams from space at massive scope and scale.

The New Golden Hour: Why the Real Battle Begins After the Final Whistle

For years, broadcasters built everything around the final whistle. The match ended, the pundits stepped in, and the coverage eased into analysis. Today, that moment is just the start. The real battle begins the second the referee blows for full time. This is the golden hour, the most valuable window in modern sport, and it has become one of the most competitive moments in the whole ecosystem. Once you lose the golden hour, it is very hard to win the story back.

Rethink's Alex Davies talks new transcoding report and future of VVC, AV1, and LCEVC

Contributing Editor Jan Ozer recently spoke with Alex Davies, senior analyst at Rethink Technology Research, about Rethink's new report, "The Media and Entertainment Transcoding Workload and Device Royalty Forecast for 2020 to 2030," and what it says about the future of VVC, AV1, and LCEVC for streaming publishers.

Automation Fatigue: Finding the Balance

The more we automate, the less we notice when creativity starts to fade. You can feel it in production teams that stop questioning. You can hear it when the director's voice is replaced by a workflow alert. When efficiency becomes the loudest voice in the room, the human instinct that makes sport so compelling starts to fade.

Litigating and Monetising Content Licensing to LLMs

Licensing data to LLMs is a potential revenue stream for streamers much like advertising on CTV platforms: it is an opportunity that didn't exist until recently that has the potential to deliver dividends for years to come. But as with CTV advertising, its viability and profitability won't happen overnight.

The Champions League Goes Global. But Can Streaming Carry the Weight?

News of Paramount's successful bid for the Champions League and the weeks of rumours that preceded it have set the industry buzzing. It feels like a natural next step. Fans are global. The game is global. The biggest platforms in the world want premium, live, must-watch content.

Comcast moves for ITV to create a UK-focused streaming giant

UK commercial broadcaster ITV has confirmed it's in early-stage talks about a possible sale of its broadcasting business to Comcast, which already owns pay-TV broadcaster Sky in the UK.

TikTok, friction, and the future of video shopping

At Streaming Media 2025 in Santa Monica, my panel with Dallas Lawrence (Telly), Sarge Sargent, Bryan Moore (TalkShopLive), and David Grant (Favored.Live) explored the hottest video shopping trend around, and it's not what TV techies have been building.

Smart sport streams still need a heart: AI can learn the game, but it can’t feel it

When it comes to algorithm-based sport coverage, from capture to cuts to commentary by synthetic voice, much of the tech required to remove humans from the equation already exists. AI can recognise goals, track the ball, and switch between angles faster than any human. But you can't replicate the buzz, the instinct, the unspoken coordination of a team reacting in real time. That's what makes live sport feel alive.

AI meets adtech

During an "AI Meets Adtech" panel at Streaming Media 2025 in Santa Monica in October, I did my best to stir things up with a group of industry thought leaders that included Google's Inderpreet Sandhu, Tavant's Filiz Bahmanpour, FOX's Amit Shetty, IAB Tech Lab's Shailley Singh, and former Disney tech ops expert Sarge Sargent.

Nokia, Ericsson, Fraunhofer HHI Join Forces to Drive 6G-Era Video Coding Standardisation

In this exclusive interview, Streaming Media's Jan Ozer speaks with Ville-Veikko Mattila, Head of Multimedia Technologies at Nokia, about Nokia's collaboration with Ericsson and Fraunhofer Institute on a new codec development and its implications for the next decade of video compression.

Paramount Skydance Favorite for WBD but Don’t Rule Out a Saudi Bid

The fate of Warner Bros. Discovery is complicated by a politically motivated regulator but whatever happens, streaming is about to get shaken up again.

Losing the Feed, but Owning the Story

For decades, broadcasters were the heartbeat of live sport. They owned the feed, shaped the story, and set the standard. But today, that control is slipping, not because audiences have abandoned them, but because the definition of "live" has changed.

AWS GM of M&E Samira Panah Bakhtiar Talks Gen AI and Interactive Sport Streaming

In this Q&A, Samira Panah Bakhtiar, Amazon Web Services (AWS) general manager of me­­dia, entertainment, games, and sport, talks about how AWS and agentic AI are changing the ways streaming workflows are executed. In her interview, she spoke both to the business side of the house and the underlying tech.

ICYMI: Streaming Media 2025's VOD Archive is Live

Streaming Media 2025, which rolled into sunny Santa Monica last week, featured speakers from Netflix, Roku, Paramount, BET, Google, Warner Bros. Discovery, Televisa Univision, and many more. Check out a playlist featuring the complete Streaming Media 25 program 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.

AI helps InterDigital reach beyond VVC in race to develop next-gen codec

Candidates for H.267 already significantly outperform VVC as the hunt for a new video compression standard gets underway

Closing the Anti-Piracy Loop: A Q&A With Friend MTS

Anti-piracy provider Friend MTS (aka FMTS) recently launched a Piracy Investigation Services solution at IBC 2025. These "covert intelligence services" "locate those responsible for illicit streaming services and equip content owners with the necessary information to take appropriate action." To dig into exactly what Piracy Investigation Services does, I interviewed Dave Gilmore, VP of intelligence at FMTS.

Video entertainment resilient to economic distress

Price inflation and wage squeeze are not putting a dampener on "TV" as consumers ratchet up their spend and their time spent on home video entertainment, according to the latest 2025 Video Trends Report from TiVo. The average number of services used by consumers is up too with the average number of FAST channels watched by viewers almost doubling year on year but SVOD churn has increased.