Netflix Has the Library. Can It Take the Stadium?

What the Netflix-Warner Bros. deal means for sports. And why it is not simple.

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.

Automation Fatigue: Finding the Balance

The more we automate, the less we notice when creativity starts to fade. You can feel it in production teams that stop questioning. You can hear it when the director's voice is replaced by a workflow alert. When efficiency becomes the loudest voice in the room, the human instinct that makes sport so compelling starts to fade.

NASA GM & Head of NASA+ Rebecca Sirmons to Keynote Streaming Media Connect December

Streaming Media Connect will launch December 9 with an exclusive Keynote Fireside Chat featuring GM & Head of NASA+ Rebecca Sirmons. Titled "Streaming the Universe with NASA+," the conversation will look at future plans involving streaming the first crewed landing on the Moon in over 50 years. This fireside chat will also explore how NASA and Sirmons' team developed NASA+ and the infrastructure, ops, and workflows that launch live streams from space at massive scope and scale.

The Champions League Goes Global. But Can Streaming Carry the Weight?

News of Paramount's successful bid for the Champions League and the weeks of rumours that preceded it have set the industry buzzing. It feels like a natural next step. Fans are global. The game is global. The biggest platforms in the world want premium, live, must-watch content.

YES Network – America’s pre-eminent Regional Sports Network and the exclusive regional home of the New York Yankees and Brooklyn Nets – and CAMB.AI enter into an agreement to explore strategic AI initiatives

Partnership comes as CAMB.AI continues to break down language barriers between sports and fans, including recent live multilingual broadcasts with MLS and NASCAR

Verizon Business Powers Next-Generation Broadcasts for Monumental Sports & Entertainment

100G Optical Network Backbone enables broadcast innovation for the Washington Capitals, Washington Wizards, Washington Mystics, and Capital City Go-Go

5G Without the Hype: Taking Control of Live Sports Production

For years, 5G has been sold as the technology that would transform live broadcasting. Network slicing, guaranteed quality of service, zero latency—all promised, few delivered. What's really changing the game now isn't another operator trial. It's private 5G, giving broadcasters the ability to design, deploy, and control the network themselves.

AI Alone Can't Deliver Smart Sports Streams

When it comes to algorithm-based sports coverage, from capture to cuts to commentary by synthetic voice, much of the tech required to remove humans from the equation already exists. AI can recognize goals, track the ball, and switch between angles faster than any human. But you can't replicate the buzz, the instinct, the unspoken coordination of a team reacting in real time. That's what makes live sports feel alive.

AI Meets Adtech

During an "AI Meets Adtech" panel at Streaming Media 2025 in Santa Monica in October, I did my best to stir things up with a group of industry thought leaders that included Google's Inderpreet Sandhu, Tavant's Filiz Bahmanpour, FOX's Amit Shetty, IAB Tech Lab's Shailley Singh, and former Disney tech ops expert Sarge Sargent.

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.

Losing the Feed, but Owning the Story

For decades, broadcasters were the heartbeat of live sports. They owned the feed, shaped the story, and set the standard. But today, that control is slipping, not because audiences have abandoned them, but because the definition of "live" has changed.

When #2 Beats #1 in Sports: Key Insights from Professional Fighters League, Swerve Sports, Roku, and Major League Table Tennis

There are hundreds of distinct sports that have been televised somewhere globally. What makes one sport work so well on TV, and not another? That's just one fascinating topic I discussed with four panelists at Streaming Media 2025 at the Fairmont Miramar Hotel in Santa Monica. Two of those panelists were involved with combat sports, which has proven to be a hot format in linear and live channel environments, including FAST. So hot, in fact, that combat also happens to be at the center of a watershed licensing agreement recently signed between the newly formed Paramount+/Skydance and UFC, the #1 combat sports brand in the world.

AWNY: Streaming's Strategic Advantage

Marketers are reconsidering how to capture attention and provide significant outcomes as consumers shift to streaming platforms. At this year's Advertising Week New York, Reed Kiely, Director, Data Insights & Trends, VAB, moderated the panel "Streaming's Strategic Advantage: Precision. Scale. Results" with panelists from Seedtag, Affinity Solutions, Premion, and Digitas.

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

ICYMI: Streaming Media 2025's VOD Archive is Live

Streaming Media 2025, which rolled into sunny Santa Monica last week, featured speakers from Netflix, Roku, Paramount, BET, Google, Warner Bros. Discovery, Televisa Univision, and many more. Check out a playlist featuring the complete Streaming Media 25 program 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.

Free Live Sports to Bring 45 Fast Sports Channels to Devices Powered by TiVo Across North America, Europe, and South America

Agreement between TiVo and Free Live Sports enables a unique multi-screen experience for sports fans

When Live Sports Aren’t Live

Low latency is not a nice-to-have. It's the difference between being in the moment and watching it on delay. In sports, the moment is the product.

Monetizing Sports on FAST: A Q&A With Free Live Sports' Cathy Rasenberger and Amagi's Srinivasan KA

In this Q&A with Free Live Sports Co-Founder Cathy Rasenberger and Amagi President Srinivasan KA, we discuss a new partnership that makes Amagi the exclusive monetization partner for Free Live Sports' entire FAST inventory, and what the deal reveals about the state of sports on FAST and how FAST monetization continues to evolve.

Worldpanel's Dominic Sunnebo Discusses New Data on Live Sports Streaming and New Subscriber Growth

Is live sports streaming driving new subscription growth on major platforms like Netflix, Prime, and Disney+? In this exclusive interview with Streaming Media's Jan Ozer, Worldpanel by Numerator's Dominic Sunnebo discusses new data from Q2 2025 exploring the impact of premium live sports and localized content on new customer acquisition on subscription and hybrid ad-tiered platforms across the paid CTV ecosystem.