Nominate Now for the 2025 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 2025? It's time to make your nominations for Streaming Media's 2025 Readers' Choice Awards, our annual industry awards program chosen by end users.

DIY Broadcast: How Underrepresented Sports Are Building Their Own Streaming Stacks

That's changing. With automated cameras, cloud production platforms, and AI-driven tools now capable of delivering the full suite of broadcast workflows—from live switching and graphics to clipping, highlights, and distribution—sports that once had no way to show themselves are building their own streaming stacks. They're not waiting to be picked up. They're going live—and taking control.

Twitch’s Dual-Layout Streaming: Technical Innovation or Industry Revolution?

As video producers, we all agree on one thing: we want to serve content in whatever format the viewer prefers. Until now, for live streaming in landscape or portrait, it's been a one-or-the-other proposition. That's changing. At TwitchCon Europe, amid the usual fanfare and cosplay, Twitch quietly announced a feature that could reshape the future of live streaming: dual-layout live streaming.

Warner Bros. Discovery Drops Linear Ballast to Float HBO Max

Having trailed the move a year ago, Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) chief David Zaslav has followed through on plans to split the company in half. The company is to separate into Streaming & Studios (HBO) and Global Networks (TNT Sports, CNN, B/R, Discovery) by mid-2026 effectively undoing the $43 billion merger between WarnerMedia and Discovery in 2022.

Ad Supply Is Outstripping Demand, Says JWP Connatix

As streaming ad inventory continues to exceed demand, JWP Connatix co-founder Brian Rifkin sees an emerging buyer's market, with biddable CTV and context-driven monetization for live and VOD expected to define the next phase of programmatic advertising.

ICYMI: Streaming Media Connect May 2025

Streaming Media presented its 17th Connect virtual conference May 20-22, featuring speakers from Paramount, Meta, Google, NBA, Roku, Warner Bros. Discovery, AWS, Akamai, Fubo, DAZN, Fremantle, IAB, Philo, Estrella, Eluvio, nanocosmos, Cerberus, and more, and session topics ranging from and sports on FAST to biddable advertising to SGAI to AI in live streaming to MoQ and more.

Experts Talk Packaging and Selling Sports on FAST at Streaming Media Connect 2025

On Wednesday, May 21, at Streaming Media Connect, Ashling Digital Founder & CEO Michael Nagle moderated the panel "FAST Break: Packaging and Selling Sports on FAST." The panelists set out to answer these questions: What do FAST sports channels look like? What kind of sports programming works on FAST? How do successful FAST sports channels target audiences and satisfy advertisers at the same time?

NGLmitú's Vision for the Future of Latino Media Unveiled at NewFronts 2025: A Q&A With CMO Joe Bernard

NGLmitú, reaching a vibrant community of over 15 million bilingual and bicultural Latinos, took center stage at NewFronts 2025 to highlight the power of the "200%er"—a growing segment that is both fully American and fully Latino, shaping culture and driving consumer trends nationwide. In this Q&A, Joe Bernard, Chief Revenue Officer, highlights the details of NGLmitú's most significant announcements from the NewFronts.

Movies on FAST channels: Spotlight or Sideshow?

In the fast-evolving world of free ad-supported streaming television, movie channels have quietly carved out a meaningful niche, yet they still struggle to command the visibility they deserve. To gauge their true footprint, I examined Samsung TV Plus, one of the fastest-growing FAST platforms across the US and Europe's five largest markets (EU5) to answer the question: Movies on FAST channels: spotlight or sideshow?

Sneak Preview: Publishers Pay to Play Free: Next Steps in Ad-Based Streaming Monetization

On Thursday, May 22, Brian Ring, Principal Analyst, Ring Digital llc, will moderate the Streaming Media Connect May panel "Publishers Pay to Play Free: Next Steps in Ad-Based Streaming Monetization." Increasingly, content publishers are finding they need more control over their ad stack. This panel looks beyond the touted monetization-ready feature sets in streaming playback solutions and drills down with key content providers on how well these solutions facilitate ad signaling and ad stitching and integrate with ad servers, discussing what kind of reporting they provide to measure success. The panel also highlights the differences in ad-based monetization strategies as between CTV platforms, online video players, and mobile apps. And finally, panelists dig deep into critical emerging standards that are changing SSAI this year.

Sneak Preview: FAST Break: Packaging and Selling Sports on FAST

On Wednesday, May 21, Michael Nagle of Ashling Digital, will moderate the Streaming Media Connect May panel "FAST Break: Packaging and Selling Sports on FAST" with Fubo's Pamela Duckworth, Swerve Sports' Christy Tanner, Sports Studio's Cathy Rasenberger, TATA's Tom Buffolano, and HRM's H. Robert Muzac. The panel will explore what FAST sports channels look like, what kind of sports programming works on FAST, and how successful FAST sports channels target audiences, and how they satisfy advertisers while breaking ranks with the industry trend of sports rights exclusivity.

Fubo Brings Live European League of Football to Fubo Sports FAST Network With Multi-Year Agreement

FuboTV Inc. (d/b/a Fubo) (NYSE: FUBO), the leading sports-first live TV streaming platform, and European League of Football (ELF) announced today a multi-year agreement for distribution on Fubo Sports, Fubo's FAST channel, available on streaming and over-the-air (OTA).

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.

Sports and Short-Form Keys to Accelerating Europe’s FAST Growth

Sports are an "accelerator" for ad-supported streaming in Europe with short-form sports content emerging as a key driver of engagement, says Keith Bedford, GM EMEA at CTV data company Wurl. "As studios and sports broadcasters struggle to tie in major upfront deals and connect with younger audiences, new models for revenue and content discovery will be required," he says. "Short-form video could be one way we start to see sports content companies garner interest and boost engagement for their long-form and TVOD (transactional video on demand) businesses."

NBA, DAZN, Mtech, WTFast, Hub Will Talk Next-Gen Sports Streaming at Streaming Media Connect

On Thursday, May 22, the NBA's Michelle Auguste, DAZN's Joe Caporoso, MTech's Matt Stagg, and WTFast's Darcy Lorincz will join Hub's Jon Giegengack for the Streaming Media Connect May panel "Highlights First: Gen AI, Gen Z, and Next-Generation Sports Streaming." As a new generation of highlights-first fans moves into the sports fandom mainstream, sports broadcasters need the agility and tech-savviness to produce and monetize personalized, short-form sports content at scale that meets the experiential demands of Millennial and Gen Z fans. If you're a sports rightsholder and you're not gaming out how to bring a personalized SportsCenter to every viewer, you're looking at where the puck was and not where it's going.

Server-Guided Ad Insertion (SGAI) and the Future of Streaming AdTech

On May 21, Streaming Media's Nadine Krefetz will moderate the Streaming Media Connect May panel "Server-Guided Ad Insertion (SGAI) and the Future of Streaming AdTech." SGAI arguably combines the advantages of CSAI and SSAI and allows for more targeted ads and better technical delivery, which is a boon to FAST and other AVOD platforms. Who is using SGAI now, how effectively are they implementing it, what can it do for you, and how likely is it to move into the ad-supported streaming mainstream?

Survey Says: Adtaxi and IAB Assess Media Viewership Shifts and Ad Spend Trends

The last two weeks of April saw the release of two data-rich research reports from Adtaxi and IAB, which revealed some encouraging, if not especially surprising trends about the ongoing shift from linear to CTV and streaming, and also the impact of sports on recent breaks in the game. Adtaxi's report focuses on audience migration while IAB's naturally zeroes in on trends in ad spend.

The End of the Beginning? Ready to call the bottom on pay TV

Q1 headlines: Interest in Multi-view; What Value Privacy; and the Grocery Retail promise

New Altman Solon Report: Gen Z Sports Viewership on the Rise in the Middle East

According to recent research by Altman Solon's Global Sports Survey, sports in the Middle East are experiencing previously unheard-of growth due to strong engagement from younger followers and creative, new investment vehicles. In this Q&A, Altman Solon Partner Andreas Tiefengraber details some of the unique regional elements that have spurned this increase and how broadcasters in other markets can use similar tactics to increase sports viewership amongst younger demographics

Sneak Preview: Streaming Media 2025 with Conference Chair Andy Beach

Streaming Media returns to the west coast October 6-8 for Streaming Media 2025 in Santa Monica. In this interview Conference Chair Andy Beach, former CTO of Microsoft, offers an advance look at the conference's mix of tech, monetization, and content strategy, and explains why this is the show the streaming industry needs now.