Sports Media Predictions: Looking Ahead to 2026

The next phase of sports media will not be defined by breakthroughs alone. It will be defined by decisions. About focus. About balance. And about where value really sits.

Roundup: Streaming Industry Predictions for 2026

The predictions game is a fascinating one, and one that's hard not to play at year's end, whether we're talking about what's to come in the next year or three, or what's just as likely to be gone. In the last few weeks, my own editorial inbox has filled to bursting with unsolicited but much-welcomed season's greetings from a disparate array of industry experts and thought leaders ringing in "End-of-Year Prediction Season" with all manner of educated guesses and promising bets about what's going to happen in 2026.

Instant Replay: Streaming Media Connect December

Streaming Media Connect December was all about live and featured exclusive keynote fireside chats with Rebecca Sirmons of NASA+ and Neal Roberts of WarnerBros. Discovery and a slate of live streaming panels packed with speakers from Peacock TV, Paramount+, Google, Globo, EZDRM, nanocosmos, CommScope, Starz, Professional Fighters League, LG, and more. Check out a playlist with Streaming Media Connect December 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.

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.

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

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.

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

AV2 Arriving: What We Know, and What We Don’t Know

According to AOMedia's announcement, AV2 is set for release at the end of 2025. The group highlights several improvements over AV1, including significantly better compression performance (with no specifics), enhanced support for AR/VR content, split-screen and multi-view delivery, improved handling of screen content, and operation across a broader visual quality range. Like AV1, AV2 will be offered under AOMedia's royalty-free patent policy, which means licensees can use it without paying royalties to AOMedia.

IBC2025: 5G Finally Winning for Live Sports

Rewind to last year and 5G was still more proof of concept than real world scenario. Not any more. "5G is here and real," said Brad Cheney, VP, Field Operations & Engineering, Fox Sports at the IBC2025 trade event in the Netherlands.

Teradek Launches Prism Jetpack: A New Era of 5G Video Contribution for Live Production

Teradek, a leading provider of video transmission and live production solutions, today announced the launch of Prism Jetpack, a groundbreaking 5G video contribution pack designed to meet the demands of live field production at the highest level. With cutting-edge connectivity and studio-grade monitoring, Prism Jetpack introduces a new category of mobile contribution for news, sports, and event coverage.

Federal Court Dismisses Roku Lawsuit Against Access Advance, Declines to Set Global Patent Pool Pricing

Access Advance LLC today announced that the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts has dismissed a lawsuit filed by Roku Inc. seeking to compel the Court to set a global fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) royalty rate for the HEVC Advance Patent Pool. Judge Richard G. Stearns determined that his Court "lacks jurisdiction to determine" a global FRAND royalty rate, noting that the "US patents constitute only a fraction of a larger portfolio." The Court further concluded that its "opinion on the appropriate royalty rate would merely be advisory", which is prohibited under US law.

Access Advance Reveals Royalty Rates for Video Streaming Services

In this interview, Jan Ozer speaks with Peter Moller, CEO of Access Advance, and Dylan Zhou, Senior VP of Licensing, about the recently announced royalty structure and initial participants in Access Advance's Video Distribution Patent Pool. The conversation outlines the codecs covered (VP9, AV1, HEVC, VVC), the targeted use cases (video streaming and content distribution), and how the royalty structure is designed to balance fairness and industry adoption.

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, personalization, security, anti-piracy, and more.

Via LA HEVC Patent Pool Licensors Sue Microsoft Over HEVC Use in Germany

Three licensors of the Via LA HEVC Patent Pool (M&K Holdings, Gensquare, and Tagivan II) have filed a patent infringement suit against Microsoft in the Landgericht Duesseldorf court in Germany, alleging unlicensed use of High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) technology in several Microsoft products.

Patent Attorney Gottfried Schüll Talks Via LA HEVC Patent Pool vs. Microsoft Infringement Suit

Three licensors of the Via LA HEVC Patent Pool (M&K Holdings, Gensquare, and Tagivan II) have filed a patent infringement suit against Microsoft in the Landgericht Duesseldorf court in Germany, alleging unlicensed use of High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) technology in several Microsoft products. In this interview with Streaming Learning Center's Jan Ozer, patent attorney Gottfried Schull, who is representing Via LA HEVC, discusses what's at issue in the lawsuit.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

H.267: A Codec for (One Possible) Future

H.267 should be finalized between July and October 2028. If history holds, this means H.267 won't see meaningful deployment until 2034-2036, long after I hang up my keyboard. Here's a brief description of what the standard is designed to deliver and my free and totally unsolicited advice to the committees and technology developers that will create it.