NAB 2026, Via LA, and the Future of NDI|HX

As a longtime fan and proponent of NDI, I feel that new codec licensing fees and the response of hardware manufacturers put the entire future of HX on shaky ground.

Fubo Optimizes its Mobile Streaming Experience for Sports Fans On-the-Go

FuboTV Inc. (NYSE: FUBO) today unveiled a major upgrade to its iOS and Android apps, powered by its proprietary AI technology, to optimize the sports streaming experience for fans wherever they are. Recognizing that sports fans aren't always at home, and that they check their phones often for game updates, Fubo's enhanced mobile apps now deliver quick hits of moments that matter in addition to full video.

What Live Sports Still Do Better Than Anything Else

Over the past decade, the streaming industry has worked hard to make sports more flexible. Cloud production, remote workflows, personalized streams, highlights on demand, clips everywhere. All of this has been important and largely positive. It has expanded access and reach. It has lowered barriers and opened new audiences. But in doing so, it has sometimes overlooked the one thing sports have always done better than anything else. It creates shared moments, in real time, that pull people into the same emotional space.

Why the Future of Remote Production May Run at the Speed of Light

If immersive, real-time, and AI-driven production is the future, the underlying network must change, argue photonics advocates and members of IOWN.

H.264 Streaming Fees: What Changed, Who's Affected, and What It Means

Via's new AVC Streaming License Fee structure, which applies to new licenses beginning in 2026, replaces the old single-cap model with a tiered system that scales sharply with platform size.

The Games Behind the Games: Winter Olympics From Mountain Slope to Mobile Screen

That illusion of effortlessness is what makes the Winter Olympics such a powerful lens for understanding where streaming and live production are heading next. Because what happened at Milano Cortina 2026 is not just about new cameras or sharper graphics. It is about the entire journey from capture to cloud to consumer.

Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery Reshape Streaming’s Power Balance

The proposed merger of Paramount Skydance Global with Warner Bros. Discovery is being framed through the usual lenses—debt loads, political sensitivities, and regulatory scrutiny in the U.S. and Europe. But the real story is simpler and more strategic: this is a scale play built around intellectual property.

ICYMI: Streaming Media Connect February 2026

Streaming Media Connect February 2026 was all about the business and tech of ad-supported streaming and featured exclusive keynote fireside chats with Michelle Auguste of the NBA, Michelle Munson of Eluvio, and Kimmy Li of GAMELOOP and a slate of expert panels panels packed with speakers from YouTube, Disney, DAZN, Fubo, Fremantle, FloSports, Fuse, LG, Philo, Bitmovin, CacheFly, Tavant, 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.

FOX 12 Plus Will Become The Home of the Portland Fire and Portland Thorns With New Focus On Women’s Sports

Portland Fire Announces Partnership With Kiswe To Power Fan-Focused Streaming Platform

Fox Sports to Deliver Vertical Coverage of FIFA World Cup with AWS Elemental Inference

AWS is the latest vendor to offer a solution to reformatting and syndicating vertical video for live sports as rights holders look to capitalize on the mobile first boom. Developed over 18 months with beta customers NBC Sports and Fox Sports, the ambition goes beyond reformatting highlights for vertical viewing but potentially live streaming whole games in the format.

Private 5G in Live Sports Production Across Land, Sea, and Air

Private 5G does not reinvent live sports. It gives production teams greater control over environments they already operate in, and the agility to take the network with them wherever the story goes.

Sneak Preview: Peak Performance: Handling Traffic Spikes for Global Live Sports Streams

On Wednesday, February 25, MTech Sport's Matt Stagg will moderate the Streaming Media Connect panel "Peak Performance: Handling Traffic Spikes for Global Live Sports Streams" with panelists from DAZN, BT Group, and TATA. When the biggest moments in live sports hit, traffic surges coming from unexpected directions can stymie even the most mature streaming stacks. This panel of live streaming and content delivery pros breaks down how top platforms prepare to manage peak demand—using smart load-balancing, real-time monitoring, and advanced failover strategies to maximize uptimes when streams scale globally.

Cracking Cloud Gaming With the CTV Model: A Q&A With GAMELOOP CEO Kimmy Li

With the immediacy of TV Guide + Twitch, GAMELOOP's "watch and play" model lets players unlock hosted games on their TV using their mobile device or remote. The platform recently launched on Samsung Gaming Hub as the first ad-supported alternative to subscription-based cloud gaming. In this interview, Gameloop CEO Kimmy Li dives into the details of GAMELOOP's offerings, her years of professional experience in the gaming industry, and how that experience has positioned her to scale freemium models.

WBD Debuts Technology Platform for Winter Olympics and Beyond

Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) is deploying a purpose-built broadcast platform and a large physical presence to deliver fully immersive coverage to audiences for the upcoming Winter Olympic Games.

Milano Cortina 2026: Winter Olympics Host Broadcaster Rules Out Remote Production

Is the Olympic Committee's host broadcaster warming to the notion of transitioning to virtual or REMI production for this winter's fast-approaching Milan Cortina games? Speaking as part of a roundtable event three weeks out from the opening ceremony of the Milan Cortina XXV Winter Games (MC26) in Northern Italy, Yiannis Exarchos, CEO, Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS) said that the sheer scale of an Olympics and current technological limitations on behalf of rights-holding broadcasters meant elimination of a physical International Broadcast Center (IBC) is not likely soon, or even desirable.

Sports Streaming Piracy Has Moved Into the Pipes

When access becomes complicated, alternatives become tempting. Piracy has quietly become a symptom of fragmentation rather than a fringe criminal behavior. And that changes how the industry has to respond.

Sports in 2026 Will Be Smarter. Let’s Make Sure They're Still Human

With smart stadiums, distributed production, automation, and data-driven decision-making, we're seeing a sea change in the way sports streams are produced, delivered, and consumed. None of this is a bad thing. Much of it is necessary. But it is also worth pausing to remember what sports are actually built on. Not code. Not platforms. Not dashboards. But people, emotion, and shared experience.

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.

When Stadiums Start Thinking for Themselves

There is something special about walking into a stadium. The noise, the anticipation, the energy you can feel in your chest. For all the things technology has transformed in sports, that moment has remained stubbornly human. But stadiums are changing. Slowly, quietly, and in ways most fans never see, the matchday venue is becoming one of the most technologically sophisticated environments in sports.

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.