Q&A: Celebrating Pride Month With Quickplay’s Paul Pastor 

Quickplay Co-Founder Paul Pastor has been using his platform as an out gay executive to advocate for more authentic and positive LGBTQ+ representation and inclusion in the tech world. In this Q&A, Pastor shares how he feels about the progress that's been made in LBTQ+ inclusion, why it's important to be your authentic self at work, what streaming media can do to engage in allyship, and how Quickplay is showing up for LGBTQ+ people, and more.

JustWatch Reveals Streaming Trends for LGBTQ+ Content in the UK During Pride Month

As Pride Month celebrations sweep across the UK, JustWatch - the world's largest streaming guide - has unveiled an annual analysis spotlighting the best streaming platforms for LGBTQ+ films and TV shows in the UK. This year's analysis showcases which services offer the richest selection of queer content, reveals the most-watched LGBTQ+ titles of the year, and examines how queer film and TV production has evolved over time.

Netflix makes quietly aggressive aggregation play

Netflix announced at Cannes Lions that it will distribute the channels and on-demand content of French commercial broadcaster TF1 to Netflix members in France, beginning next year. If successful, Netflix will have jumped a start on all its rivals who have so far resisted, or failed to entice, broadcasters anywhere to share their entire schedule and programme output with a third-party streaming platform.

Twitch Unveils Dual-Layout Streaming at TwitchCon Europe: Technical Innovation or Industry Revolution?

As video producers, we all agree on one thing: we want to serve content in whatever format the viewer prefers. Until now, for live streaming in landscape or portrait, it's been a one-or-the-other proposition. That's changing. At TwitchCon Europe, amid the usual fanfare and cosplay, Twitch quietly announced a feature that could reshape the future of live streaming: dual-layout live streaming.

Warner Bros. Discovery drop linear ballast to float HBO Max

Having trailed the move a year ago, Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) chief David Zaslav has followed through on plans to split the company in half. The company is to separate into Streaming & Studios (HBO) and Global Networks (TNT Sports, CNN, B/R, Discovery) by mid-2026 effectively undoing the $43 billion merger between WarnerMedia and Discovery in 2022.

Voting is open for the 2025 Streaming Media European Innovation Awards

Voting is open for the 2025 Streaming Media European Innovation Awards. In 2025, we've got 13 categories. The polls are open - let the voting begin!

Merzigo Shows Localization as a Fundamental Content Growth Strategy

Originating from Turkey, with bases in London and L.A., Merzigo has become a global business by helping content owners like Warner Bros. Discovery and Walt Disney maximize revenue from program distribution on YouTube and Facebook. It just inked a new deal with Fremantle which extends its reach further across North America, Europe and Asia.

BBC trials low-latency live streams during Glastonbury and Wimbledon

The BBC has taken its trial of Low Latency DASH with chunked CMAF segments to the next stage by assessing how well its approach performs when received by viewers watching marquee sports and music events on iPlayer at home. The trial, which is for select viewers of BBC Two viewed live on iPlayer, will likely include music festival Glastonbury, tennis championship Wimbledon and the Women's soccer Euros which all start by the end of June or beginning of July.

Ad supply is outstripping demand, say JWP Connatix

As streaming ad inventory continues to exceed demand, JWP Connatix see an emerging buyer's market, with biddable CTV and context-driven monetisation for live and VOD expected to define the next phase of programmatic advertising.

The Pros and Cons of Software Decoding for Publishers and Viewers

This article examines recent data on efficiency and power usage for hardware and software decoding and explores how this data shapes the value proposition for publishers opting for software decoding and viewers that wittingly, or unwittingly, watch services that deploy it. It concludes with two short surveys for publishers and consumers that ask for your perspective on and experience with software decoding. Be sure to take the surveys!

Last chance to nominate for the 2025 Streaming Media Innovation Awards

Nominations close Saturday 31 May for Streaming Media's 2025 European Innovation Awards.

ICYMI: Streaming Media Connect May 2025

Streaming Media presented its 17th Connect virtual conference May 20-22, featuring speakers from Paramount, Meta, Google, NBA, Roku, Warner Bros. Discovery, AWS, Akamai, Fubo, DAZN, Fremantle, IAB, Philo, Estrella, Eluvio, nanocosmos, Cerberus, and more, and session topics ranging from and sports on FAST to biddable advertising to SGAI to AI in live streaming to Media Over QUIC (MoQ) and more.

Addressing AI-Associated Authenticity Issues at Streaming Media Connect

On Thursday, May 22, at Streaming Media Connect, Nadine Krefetz, Consultant, Reality Software, moderated the panel "In AI We Trust? AI and Content Authenticity," which looked at how being assured of content validity is more important now than ever before in a world of AI-created synthetic content and deepfakes. The panelists were Andy Beach, Media & AI Strategist, Alchemy Creations, and Conference Chair, Streaming Media 2025; Renard Jenkins, President and CEO, I2A2 Technologies, Studios & Labs; Lindsay Stewart, CEO and Founder, Stringr; and Manny Ahmed, Founder and CEO, OpenOrigins. 

Innovation vs. optimisation in streaming delivery

While innovation is good at the outset of a transformation (such as analog to digital video), it can become counterproductive to building sustainable businesses. Continuous innovation means taking away resources from making existing technologies more scalable, resilient, and reliable—three traits that are critical to the success of something like a streaming platform.

Movies on FAST channels: spotlight or sideshow?

In the fast-evolving world of free ad-supported streaming television, movie channels have quietly carved out a meaningful niche, yet they still struggle to command the visibility they deserve. To gauge their true footprint, I examined Samsung TV Plus, one of the fastest-growing FAST platforms across the US and Europe's five largest markets (EU5) to answer the question: Movies on FAST channels: spotlight or sideshow?

BBC making AI deals with Silicon Valley and plotting streaming device for PSBs

Moves to transition the UK's free-to-air broadcasters to an all-streaming future have gathered pace with 2035 a likely tipping point with the BBC leading the charge.

Sneak Preview: origin to edge: video caching and content delivery

On Tuesday, May 20, Mark de Jong, Chairman, CDN Alliance, will moderate the Streaming Media Connect May panel "Origin to Edge: Video Caching and Content Delivery," with an all-star lineup including Warner Bros. Discovery, Sky, and BuyDRM discussing the benefits of edge caching and distributed architecture for live sports, personalisation, security, anti-piracy, and more.

Fubo Brings Live European League of Football to Fubo Sports Fast Network With Multi-Year Agreement

FuboTV Inc., the leading sports-first live TV streaming platform, and European League of Football (ELF) announced today a multi-year agreement for distribution on Fubo Sports, Fubo's FAST channel, available on streaming and over-the-air (OTA).

Sport and short-form keys to accelerating Europe’s FAST growth, say Wurl

Sports are an "accelerator" for ad-supported streaming in Europe with short-form sports content emerging as a key driver of engagement, says Keith Bedford, GM EMEA at CTV data company Wurl. "As studios and sports broadcasters struggle to tie in major upfront deals and connect with younger audiences, new models for revenue and content discovery will be required," he says. "Short-form video could be one way we start to see sports content companies garner interest and boost engagement for their long-form and TVOD (transactional video on demand) businesses."

YouTube appeals to UK broadcasters and TV producers to reach audiences of all kinds

With YouTube dominating media consumption and conversation it was perhaps only natural that the UK and Ireland's chief gave the keynote to Creative Cities Convention (CCC), a conference for the UK TV industry. It may have come as a surprise to some in the audience that YouTube is not for kids but is intergenerational, said Alison Lomax, claiming the platform reached over 90 per cent of all age groups each month.