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.

Canela Media CMO Oswald Méndez Discusses Club Canela, a Breakthrough In-App Rewards Program

Club Canela, the first fully integrated in-app streaming rewards program of its kind, has been launched by Canela Media, a leading technology and innovation-driven multicultural media company. Its goal is to strengthen its relationship with Canela.TV users and to provide brands with fresh, creative ways to interact with these audiences. In this Q&A, Oswald Méndez, CMO of Canela Media, outlines Club Canela's unique details and benefits. 

Sneak Preview: Highlights First: Gen AI, GenZ, and Next-Gen Sports Streaming

On Thursday, May 22, the NBA's Michelle Auguste, DAZN's Joe Caporoso, MTech's Matt Stagg, and WTFast's Darcy Lorincz will join Hub's Jon Giegengack for the Streaming Media Connect May panel "Highlights First: Gen AI, Gen Z, and Next-Generation Sports Streaming." As a new generation of highlights-first fans moves into the sports fandom mainstream, sports broadcasters need the agility and tech-savviness to produce and monetize personalized, short-form sports content at scale that meets the experiential demands of Millennial and Gen Z fans. If you're a sports rightsholder and you're not gaming out how to bring a personalized SportsCenter to every viewer, you're looking at where the puck was and not where it's going.

Nominate Now for the 2025 Innovation Awards

Nominations are now open for Streaming Media's 2025 European Innovation Awards.

SoFast and Deepdub announce partnership to enable FAST channels in Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Arabic, Japanese, Korean, and More

Powered by Deepdub's proprietary eTTS™ technology, SoFast customers will be able to take full advantage of expressive voice localisation and expand into new markets

New Q1 survey data: interest in multi-view; what value privacy; the grocery retail promise

While multi-view isn't new, the way YouTube TV has executed it is. And it's cool! It's a great way to watch sport and I've used it for news and weather too, at least during periods of intense activity.

TNT Sports losses reflect broader challenges for sports subscriptions

Losses at TNT Sports, the UK pay TV broadcasting joint-venture between Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) and telco BT, increased to £187 million ($250m) during its first year (to July 2024) after a rebrand from BT Sport.

Deepdub’s Oz Krakowski Talks Expressive AI Dubbing, Global Monetization, and Live Translation at Scale

In this interview with Streaming Media contributing editor Jan Ozer, Oz Krakowski, Chief Business Development Officer at Deepdub, discusses how the company delivers emotionally rich AI dubbing for media and entertainment clients. From crime documentaries to sports and theatrical releases, Deepdub's hybrid approach blends machine learning with creative talent to localize content at scale while maintaining quality and nuance.

Gen Z Sports Viewership on the Rise in the Middle East

According to recent research by Altman Solon's Global Sports Survey, sports in the Middle East are experiencing previously unheard-of growth due to strong engagement from younger followers and creative, new investment vehicles. In this Q&A, Altman Solon Partner Andreas Tiefengraber details some of the unique regional elements that have spurned this increase and how broadcasters in other markets can use similar tactics to increase sports viewership amongst younger demographics.

BBC unveils blueprint for long-term research driven by AI and IP

The BBC has outlined how it will plan future R&D and it is being built around internet-only, intelligent, intermediated, interactive and immersive media.

NAB 2025: NPAW’s Gary Hunsberger on Streaming Analytics, AI-Driven Insights, and Expansion Plans in the U.S.

In this interview with Streaming Media contributing editor Jan Ozer, Gary Hunsberger, general manager of U.S. operations at NPAW (Nice People At Work), outlines the company's approach to end-to-end quality monitoring, actionable data, and monetisation support. Hunsberger, who joined NPAW seven weeks before NAB 2025, shares how the company differentiates itself in a crowded analytics market, discusses future AI integration plans, and previews growth initiatives in the U.S. and Canada.

NAB 2025: The AI imperative

At NAB 2025, the term AI reigned supreme over other still-popular tech buzzwords like SaaS, cloud, and end-to-end that dominated previous' years shows. But before jumping or falling into the AI world, perhaps learning from the past is a good idea. As with SaaS and cloud, buying or launching a family of products with AI does not make a strategy.

NAB 2025: Narayanan Rajan Talks Reintroducing Media Excel, Hero Platform Differentiation, and AI-Powered Encoding

In this interview with Streaming Media contributing editor Jan Ozer, Narayanan "Raj" Rajan, CEO of Media Excel, reflects on his first year at the helm of one of the most established names in the encoding industry. Rajan discusses how Media Excel is reasserting its relevance with the Hero platform—an encoder/transcoder/packager suite—and why live streaming, low latency, and AI-optimised encoding remain at the heart of the company's strategy.

Sneak Preview: Streaming Media 2025 with conference chair Andy Beach

Streaming Media returns to the US west coast October 6-8 for Streaming Media 2025 in Santa Monica, California. In this interview Conference Chair Andy Beach, former CTO of Microsoft, offers an advance look at the conference's mix of tech, monetisation, and content strategy, and explains why this is the show the streaming industry needs now.