FIFA World Cup 2026: The '104 Super Bowls' Broadcast Machine

On the eve of kickoff, the scale of FIFA World Cup 2026 still staggers. FIFA president Gianni Infantino has compared the undertaking to "104 Super Bowls," with a global audience of six billion predicted to watch some of the 104 matches packed into 39 days from 16 venues across the United States, Canada, and Mexico. For 2026, FIFA is deploying 16 dedicated venue crews — one per stadium — rather than rotating a smaller pool. They will be supported by seven centralized replay teams based in Dallas.

Ungrounded LLM Fabricates Every Detail for Nearly 1 in 5 Movie and TV Titles Tested, New Gracenote Report Finds

Study underscores the need for authoritative content intelligence to build trusted search, discovery and recommendation experiences powered by generative AI

Elevating Content Verticalization With Emotion-Aware AI: A Q&A With Vionlabs' Arash Pendari

Vionlabs makes full content libraries "discoverable, engaging, and revenue-ready" using its "emotion-aware" AI. It's a company paying attention to the shift toward vertical and mobile-first viewing, including the micro-drama boom. Content creators that work with Vionlabs get the verticalization of long-form content into chapters and micro-episodes, preview clips for every title that can be used for social media and promotion, scene-level metadata that surfaces content to match viewers' moods, and non-intrusive ad breaks with contextual targeting. This Q&A with Vionlabs Founder Arash Pendari explores his thoughts on the use of AI in the streaming industry and how Vionlabs' platform works. 

Powering Interactive Streaming for DDG's Blame the Chat Tour: A Q&A With MemeHouse Head of Marketing Sandra Aderibigbe

Earlier this year, cloud streaming and live production company MemeHouse powered the full backend interactive live streaming infrastructure for DDG's 'Blame the Chat' Tour, constructing and managing a complete real-time production environment. In this Q&A, MemeHouse's Sandra Aderibigbe discusses the logistical resources needed to pull off these massive livestreaming feats including a successful Coachella event, and what these accomplishments signal for the future of ambitious creator-driven livestreaming events.

Survey Says: Streaming Battling for Viewer Attention in a Fragmented Media Market

A new Accenture survey, "Reinvent for growth, the signals shaping media's next chapter" finds streaming slipping compared to social and gaming in battle for viewer eyeballs, and AI rising for production and post at diversified tech platforms.

The Streaming Industry Is Building for Personalization Before It Solves Discovery

While the industry races towards increasingly sophisticated personalized sports streaming experiences, the fundamental viewing journey for many fans remains fragmented, confusing, and unnecessarily complicated.

Premium Live Event CTV Expansion Leads to Increases in Upfront Spending: A Q&A With JamLoop’s Jeff Fagel

A new survey by the performance-focused CTV advertising platform JamLoop has revealed a notable shift in marketing budget strategies toward premium live event CTV. Their survey of 120 brand and agency marketing leaders showed that perceptions of live event CTV have shifted toward performance capabilities, with an emphasis on accountability and measurable results.

Generative AI Got the Hype, Agentic AI Will Do the Heavy Lifting for Live Sports

The most important AI systems in sports may end up being the ones fans never see. Agentic AI is not flashy. Fans are unlikely to notice it directly. There will not be endless social posts about orchestration layers dynamically rerouting workflows or prioritizing distribution paths.

Creator Content Crossing the Media Chasm at Web Summit Vancouver 2026

We are now seeing a groundswell of content coming from social platforms and podcasts that challenges everything about how legacy media has operated. The Web Summit conference that happened in Vancouver this week, which The Guardian dubbed "Glastonbury for geeks," served up a next-gen creator vibe in its Creative Summit typified by a panel titled "How Fandom is Transforming Entertainment" that explored how responsive fan communities are driving and defining content creation.

ICYMI: Streaming Media Connect May 2026

Streaming Media Connect May 2026 was all about delivering and monetizing sports streaming featured exclusive keynote fireside chats with Matt Graham of the Tennis Channel and Maria Malinowitsch of Verimatrix and a slate of expert panels packed with speakers from DAZN, Globo, Fubo, OneFootball, FloSports, NESN, IAB Tech Lab, Telestream, Zixi, BuyDRM, ViewLift, CacheFly, Servers.com, Tiledmedia, Norsk, and more. Check out a playlist with Streaming Media Connect sessions 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.

Nominate Now for the 2026 Streaming Media Readers' Choice Awards

What's your favorite streaming tool, tech, or service? What is the most important new innovation in the business in 2026? It's time to make your nominations for Streaming Media's 2026 Readers' Choice Awards, our annual industry awards program chosen by end users.

Sneak Preview: Programming and Monetizing Sports on FAST

How do you fill a 24/7 channel with compelling sports programming without breaking the bank? On Thursday, May 14, Chris Pfaff will moderate the Streaming Media Connect panel "Alpha Channel: Programming and Monetizing Sports on FAST" alongside experts from Fubo, FloSports, FreeLiveSports, and TeleGraff Media. This panel explores creative scheduling and content mixes, licensing strategies, fresh angles on balancing mass appeal and niche differentiation, and tips for identifying and serving passionate communities of fans. Learn what turns on FAST sports channel viewers and keeps them tuning in.

Women-Centered, Artist-Owned: A Q&A With Chera TV

Streaming Media has been tracking the trend of vertical microdramas (aka vertical dramas), as multiple companies gain traction in the space. The subject of this Q&A, Chera TV, is hoping its unique approach of being what it calls "the first artist-owned vertical streaming platform" can entice viewers to give it a try as it introduces its dramas this spring.

Sneak Preview: Ultra-Low-Latency Sports Streaming From Stadium to Screen at Streaming Media Connect

On Thursday, May 14, Elecard's Victoria Tuzova will moderate the Streaming Media Connect panel "Need for Speed: Ultra-Low-Latency Sports Streaming From Stadium to Screen." This panel of experts from Servers.com, Synamedia, Vindral, and Stats Perform dives into the engineering fundamentals—capture, encoding, delivery, and playback—that underpin smooth execution through the first, middle, and last miles without sacrificing quality. Learn what breaks at scale, how to prepare for and ward off disaster, and why low latency isn't just a number, but the difference between a winning broadcast and a blown opportunity.

The Post-NAB View: Live Sports Still Need Technology That Works

I recently got back from Las Vegas after a few days at NAB. And, as always, it delivered. Big ideas, big promises and a huge amount of innovation across the show floor. But walking away from it this year, one thing is clearer than ever. Live sports streaming is no longer short of ideas. It's short of things that actually work at scale.

NAB 2026: Things You Might Have Missed

An in-depth look some developments that may have flown under the radar at NAB 2026, from the rise of differentiated agentic media solutions and workflows and the demise of SaaS to advances in audio stem separations and the industry's better-late-than-never cult of content authenticity via C2PA.

Setplex Secures Top Honors with NAB Show Project of the Year Award for UVOtv

Setplex announced that it has taken home the NAB Show Project of the Year Award in the Distribution category for its innovative deployment with UVOtv.

NAB 2026: AI-Powered Video Creation with Avid and Google

Avid and Google teamed up for a tech preview at NAB 2026 to demonstrate new generative video functionality for Avid Media Composer. This workflow tool brings us to the front of the lens, where we've moved one step closer to building realistic content with Gen AI.

Sneak Preview: Creating Lean-In Engagement With Personalized, Next-Gen Sports Streaming Experiences

On Wednesday, May 13, Chris Pfaff, CEO, Chris Pfaff Tech Media, will moderate the Streaming Media Connect panel "Fans Forward: Creating Lean-In Engagement With Personalized, Next-Gen Sports Streaming Experiences." This panel explores how next-gen platforms deliver individualized sports experiences: customizable commentary tracks, fan-selected camera angles, in-game ecommerce, personalized graphic overlays and statistics, and even AI-generated highlight reels tailored to individual interests.

NAB 2026: NVIDIA’s Not-So-Secret AI Agents

One demo I saw at NAB 2026 covered using agents to create content. Obviously, agents need to be managed so they don't think too far outside the box. In this demo, NVIDIA talked about their control plane for a multitask agent project that helps create both a script and animated characters.