Sneak Preview: Going, Going, Gone: Can Biddable Advertising Fix CTV’s Fill Rate Slump?

On Thursday, May 22, Chris Pfaff, CEO, Chris Pfaff Tech Media, will moderate the Streaming Media Connect May panel "Going, Going, Gone: Can Biddable Advertising Fix CTV's Fill Rate Slump?" With FAST and CTV fill rates slipping throughout 2024 (except for a brief election bump), content owners and their partners are casting about for new and different ways to fill inventory. By clearing the way for advertisers to buy in just before show time rather than having to lock in their campaigns months in advance, so-called "real-time" biddable CTV opens up late-breaking, flexible opportunities to unload unclaimed inventory on an auction basis before it goes to waste. But as bidding on audiences reportedly surges for sports, is auction-based advertising really suitable for other premium content? Is it likely to change the way brands approach media-buying, or is it just another transitory trend?

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.

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."

Future Today Takes Center Stage at IAB NewFronts 2025

-Future Today Expands Fawesome's Premium Content Portfolio with partnerships with Gusto TV, Pangea Entertainment and Bold Baking Network-Launch of Chuck E. Cheese Media Network to Deliver Content on HappyKids and Standalone FAST App-Powering Privacy-Safe, Interactive Ad Experiences Across CTV

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.

In AI We Trust? AI and Content Authenticity

On Thursday, May 22, Nadine Krefetz will moderate the Streaming Media Connect May panel "In AI We Trust? AI and Content Authenticity," featuring Think Alchemy's Andy Beach, I2A's Renard Jenkins, and Stringr's Lindsay Stewart. As generative AI is finding its way into streaming in many ways, this panel looks at two popular use cases: deep fakes and captioning. We'll discuss initiatives like C2PA to address emerging content authenticity issues and evaluate the current state of the art and tech.

Digital Video is Set to Capture Nearly 60% of All TV/Video Ad Spend in 2025, CTV Rebounds to Double-Digit Growth in 2024, According to IAB

Sports, Live Streaming Events, and Programmatic Ad Tools Fuel CTV Growth

SoFast and Deepdub Announce First-of-Its-Kind Partnership to Enable FAST Channels in Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Arabic, Japanese, Korean, and More

Powered by Deepdub's proprietary eTTS™ technology, SoFast customers will be able to take full advantage of expressive voice localization and expand into new markets

NPAW’s Gary Hunsberger on Streaming Analytics, AI-Driven Insights, and Expansion Plans in the U.S.

In this interview with Streaming Media contributing editor Jan Ozer, Gary Hunsberger, general manager of U.S. operations at NPAW (Nice People At Work), outlines the company's approach to end-to-end quality monitoring, actionable data, and monetization support. Hunsberger, who joined NPAW seven weeks before NAB 2025, shares how the company differentiates itself in a crowded analytics market, discusses future AI integration plans, and previews growth initiatives in the U.S. and Canada.

Doubling Down on Live Linear Programmatic Advertising

The problem of adjusting a live ad buy in linear has jumped over one more hurdle. Earlier this year, DirectTV Advertising announced that their satellite TV content can now be bought programmatically in real time. This means an advertiser can see when viewing is surging and double down to serve ads during key moments. This feature will be available for programming on ESPN, MLB Network, FS1, and the Tennis Channel.

Deepdub’s Oz Krakowski Talks Expressive AI Dubbing, Global Monetization, and Live Translation at Scale

In this interview with Streaming Media contributing editor Jan Ozer, Oz Krakowski, Chief Business Development Officer at Deepdub, discusses how the company delivers emotionally rich AI dubbing for media and entertainment clients. From crime documentaries to sports and theatrical releases, Deepdub's hybrid approach blends machine learning with creative talent to localize content at scale while maintaining quality and nuance.

NAB 2025: Live Sports Streaming, TVXRAY, and the Qvest for Personalization

At NAB 2025 I set out in search of one irrefutable, real-world example of true sports streaming personalization, an innovative and unique experience that might present a mass-media live sporting event on my screen as it appears on no one else's. I found a contender at the Qvest Engage booth.

NAB 2025: 3Play Chief Growth Officer Lily Bond Talks Accessibility, Localization, and Service Expansion

In this NAB 2025 interview with Streaming Media contributing editor Jan Ozer, Lily Bond, Chief Growth Officer at 3Play Media, discusses how the company has evolved from one of the earliest captioning providers into a full-service accessibility and localization partner. With 15 years in the business, 3Play now offers captioning, subtitling, audio description, and hybrid AI/human dubbing services for customers looking to comply with accessibility laws and expand into global markets.

NAB 2025: Narayanan Rajan Talks Reintroducing Media Excel, Hero Platform Differentiation, and AI-Powered Encoding

In this interview with Streaming Media contributing editor Jan Ozer, Narayanan "Raj" Rajan, CEO of Media Excel, reflects on his first year at the helm of one of the most established names in the encoding industry. Rajan discusses how Media Excel is reasserting its relevance with the Hero platform—an encoder/transcoder/packager suite—and why live streaming, low latency, and AI-optimized encoding remain at the heart of the company's strategy.

NAB 2025: The AI Imperative

At NAB 2025, the term AI reigned supreme over other still-popular tech buzzwords like SaaS, cloud, and end-to-end that dominated previous' years shows. But before jumping or falling into the AI world, perhaps learning from the past is a good idea. As with SaaS and cloud, buying or launching a family of products with AI does not make a strategy.

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.

NAB 2025: AI and the Three Bears

It's surely no surprise that a lot of companies at NAB are talking about including AI or Gen AI in the latest product releases. The challenge is to find companies whose AI implementations are driving the product vs. those that are just window dressing. Invariably, with some the proportion of AI hype to substance is too much, too little, or just right.

NAB 2025: Performance Storytelling in the CTV Era

On April 7 at NAB 2025's Streaming Summit, conference chair Dan Rayburn and LG Ad Solutions CMO Tony Marlow squared off in a fireside chat on "Performance Storytelling in the CTV Era." From the outset, Marlow declared, the challenge and the goal LG Ad Solutions sets for itself is to "monetize CTV premium ads from the moment you turn on your TV."

Wowza CEO Krish Kumar Talks Product Strategy, Enhanced Analytics, and AI for Encoding and Metadata

In November 2024, Wowza appointed Krish Kumar CEO. Understanding where Kumar plans to take Wowza is critical to all those whose businesses touch streaming video. To learn more about Krish and Wowza's future direction, contributing editor Jan Ozer interviewed him about ten days before NAB 2025.

Q&A With Aarki CEO Aman Sareen: Programmatic’s iGaming Problem - App Hopping, ROAS, and Retention

Programmatic advertising is one of the most powerful tools in iGaming—but also one of the most challenging. Rising acquisition costs, limited tracking post-IDFA, and intense creative fatigue are just the start. In a space where traditional user acquisition is getting more expensive and less effective, iGaming marketers face a clear programmatic crossroads. Aarki CEO Aman Sareen discusses the ways that Aarki's latest report highlights how the most successful apps are adapting.