Finding the Elusive Viewer: A Q&A with Samsung Ads Head of Insights Justin Fromm

I spoke with Justin Fromm, Head of Insights, Samsung Ads recently about how Samsung as an OEM works with consumer data.

How to Move FAST Forward: Six Action Items for Free Streaming's Future

At Streaming Media Connect 2025 I moderated a session called "FAST Forward" with panelists from A+E, Fremantle, Plex, and Revry. We looked at how FAST platforms and providers can better serve their channel customers. Drawing on insights from the panel, here are six key action items to move our industry forward.

Outage at the Oscars: Producing Live Streams Is Harder Than it Looks

The Oscars were broadcast March 2nd on Disney-owned ABC and streamed on Hulu. However, the livestream was reportedly beset with problems.

The Future of Media and Entertainment Unveiled at NAB Show

AI, Sports, Streaming, Cloud Virtualization and the Creator Economy Take Center Stage

NPAW's Bruno Giner and ESHAP's Evan Shapiro Talk Better Data for Better Business Outcomes at Streaming Media Connect 2025

Streaming Media Connect 2025's featured a fascinating Keynote Fireside Chat featuring NPAW VP Sales Global | DXI Bruno Giner and Media Universe Cartographer Evan Shapiro. The discussion focused on the importance of data in the streaming industry and NPAW's strategic approach to it, emphasizing the need for democratization and unification of data across departments to improve business outcomes.

LLMs on Air: Gen AI Use Cases for News, Sports, and Entertainment

Streaming Media Connect 2025 featured a session on using generative AI in news, sports, and entertainment, moderated by Brian Ring of Ring Digital. The panel included industry veterans Andy Beach, Pete Scott, and Raffi Mamalian, who discussed the transformative potential of AI in media production. Key topics included the ethical use of AI, the challenges of AI dubbing, the future of personalized content, and more.

ICYMI: Streaming Media Connect February 2025

Streaming Media presented its 16th Connect virtual conference February 25-27, featuring speakers from YouTube, Meta, Amazon, Roku, Akamai, Google Cloud, Plex, DAZN, Fremantle, A+E, Vevo, Philo, Tubi, The Trade Desk, Sinclair, Vizio, Revry, and more, and session topics ranging from live streaming delivery and FAST infrastructure and monetization to app and UX to programmatic vs. direct advertising to CTV and the OS wars.

MainStreaming CEO Tassilo Raesig Talks Resilient Edge Delivery and Optimising QoS and QoE at Scale

In this interview, MainStreaming CEO Tassilo Raesig discusses the ongoing challenges facing global CDN services in their efforts to deliver broadcast-grade streams that meet client expectations for performance, scale, and monetisation. Raesig explains how MainStreaming's edge solutions work within ISP networks to create resilient infrastructure, optimise video delivery, and reduce network strain.

Challenges and Opportunities in the CTV Ecosystem: Evan Shapiro in Conversation With Matthew Henick of The Trade Desk

Kicking off the latest Streaming Media Connect, media universe cartographer Evan Shapiro sat down for an in-depth discussion about the challenges and opportunities of the CTV ecosystem with Matthew Henick of The Trade Desk. They discussed the importance of fairness, transparency, and user-centric strategies in the ad-supported streaming landscape, and they highlighted the need for better ad personalization, efficient ad inventory management, and the alignment of incentives to enhance the overall user experience and support premium content creation.

Meta's David Ronca Talks Benchmarking and Deploying AV1 in the Android Ecosystem

The arc of AV1 codec adoption at large-scale content owners has been long and complex, as Meta Senior Media Software Engineer David Ronca (who also spent 12 years developing encoding solutions at Netflix) knows as well as anyone. In this interview with Jan Ozer of Streaming Media and Streaming Learning Center, Ronca discusses the integration of AV1 into the Android ecosystem, focusing on the challenges and solutions for mobile devices. 

Sneak Preview: How to Leverage AI for Captioning and Localization

On Tuesday, February 25, Steve Vonder Haar of IntelliVid Research will moderate the Streaming Media Connect panel "How to Leverage AI for Captioning and Localization." The rapid evolution of AI has created vast new opportunities for content owners and creators to cost-effectively make their content accessible across more territories and to more audiences than ever before. The potential for this kind of technology as it proliferates is tremendous, since it makes it far cheaper and easier to customize a platform's content not only to a region but even to a specific group of users. But it also raises new ethical regulatory issues. As the tech leaps forward while the guardrails slowly take shape, how can content owners balance the opportunities and concerns to maximize the promise of AI for captioning, translation, and localization? Confirmed panelists include experts from Google Cloud, Vevo, Interra Systems, and MultiChoice Group Company.

Sneak Preview: How to Meet the Challenges of New Codec Adoption and Deployment

On Wednesday, February 26, digital video expert Jan Ozer will moderate the Streaming Media Connect panel "How to Meet the Challenges of New Codec Adoption and Deployment." Many of us want to see new codecs such as AV1 and VVC/H.266 succeed rapidly and bring the efficiencies and savings they were designed to deliver, but the reality is more complex. Codec adoption doesn't just depend on innovation; it's a marathon involving hardware readiness, market penetration, and achieving a 30% device compatibility threshold. This panel assembles transcoding experts from Evolution, Radiant Media Player, United Cloud, and AOM.

Netflix Turns to Vodcasts and Creators to Keep Audiences Plugged In

Netflix views video podcasts as an inexpensive way to expand and diversify content, increase ads revenue, and boost engagement--in particular to stem churn between series. In doing so, the streamer is taking a leaf out of the YouTube playbook, including tapping creators to create new formats or simply port existing shows to its platform.

Sustainability Slips Down Industry’s Agenda Says Bitmovin Video Developer Report

The latest Video Developer Report compiled by Bitmovin shows sustainability slipping down the list of priorities, a casualty of the search for short term profit. The report made clear the industry's top priority is monetizing content more effectively with ad tech, which can be attributed to the huge spike in AVOD and FAST business models.

Sports Streaming Trends: How Digital Platforms Are Changing the Game

BB Media's report on the 2025 Super Bowl explores how sports have become the dominant force in niche streaming. With 133 specialized sports platforms in the U.S., the industry surpasses other categories like reality TV, science, and news. The Super Bowl's digital expansion in 2025 further highlights this shift, with Fox streaming it for free on Tubi for the first time. As platforms experiment with ad-supported models and interactive features, sports continue to redefine the streaming landscape.

Roku Data Cloud Arrives—Is Data (Finally) Becoming More Transparent?

Roku is betting on their Data Cloud to provide better, more targeted advertising for media, agencies, and brand customers and more valuable advertising budgets to Roku. In this interview with Roku's Miles Fisher, we discuss why Roku created the Data Cloud and what it will provide in terms of measurement and data.

Sneak Preview: Beat the Clock - How to Deliver Five-Nines Sports Streams at Scale

On Tuesday, February 25, Jason Thibeault of Streaming Video Technology Alliance will moderate the Streaming Media Connect panel "Beat the Clock: How to Deliver Five-Nines Sports Streams at Scale." When large-scale sports streams fail to meet expectations, folks can't stop talking about it. Any sports streaming workflow is only as strong as its weakest (or least-tested) link. The more lucrative the license and massive the stream, unfortunately, the larger the opportunity and the smaller the margin for error. So, what do the experts say about the architectural demands and challenges of maintaining five-nines uptime and broadcast quality when the stakes are too high to let either suffer? And what solutions do they recommend? Confirmed panelists include experts from Akami, YouTube, The Switch, Swerve TV, and EZDRM.

Sneak Preview: LLMs on Air - Gen AI Use Cases for News, Sports, and Entertainment

On Wednesday, February 26, leading industry expert Brian Ring will moderate the Streaming Media Connect panel "LLMs on Air: Gen AI Use Cases for News, Sports, and Entertainment." Large language models (LLMs) are making inroads everywhere in the streaming world. As a text-generating subset of Gen AI that stands apart from audio and video creation but is nonetheless having a significant impact on how broadcasters deliver content and how viewers experience it, how will these LLMs get commoditized? This expert panel addresses a host of issues around LLMs and streaming, from aggressive data scraping to metadata-driven discovery and more. Confirmed panelists include experts from Sinclair, Play Anywhere, and evision.

Sneak Preview: OS Wars - The New CTV Playing Field

On Thursday, February 27, Mark Loughney, Senior Consultant, Hub Entertainment Research, will moderate the Streaming Media Connect panel "OS Wars: The New CTV Playing Field." From live linear to FAST, AVOD, and all flavors of free streaming, how are the OEM and OS wars transforming the way TV is distributed and monetized? As the global battle for TV interface dominance persists, and powerhouse OEMs increasingly assert their role as content gatekeeper, are we moving toward a closed society when it comes to CTV? Confirmed panelists include experts from Revry, Hartbeat, Shout! Factory, and Whale TV.

Sneak Preview: FAST Forward - How FAST Platform and Infrastructure Providers Can Better Serve the Market

On Thursday, February 27, leading industry consultant Brian Ring will moderate the Streaming Media Connect panel "FAST Forward: How FAST Platform and Infrastructure Providers Can Better Serve the Market." As with any other type of streaming delivery, FAST needs to "just work" to support publishers' monetization goals, but that's nowhere as simple as it sounds. This panel examines essential infrastructure challenges and key emerging strategies for better FAST delivery. Join us to learn about manifest manipulation vs. encoded playout; optimizing and maximizing "Be Right Back" slots as in-house inventory; using GenAI to program the channel; solving the context/genre madness with LLMs and captions; advanced graphics for background, tune-in, and monetization; QR code execution, a must-have skillset; and how to execute picture-in-picture content programming. Confirmed panelists include experts from A+E, Plex, Revry, and Freemantle.