Sneak Preview: Peak Performance: Handling Traffic Spikes for Global Live Sports Streams
On Wednesday, February 25, Matt Stagg, senior consultant and founder of MTech Sport, Media & Entertainment, will moderate the Streaming Media Connect panel “Peak Performance: Handling Traffic Spikes for Global Live Sports Streams.” 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.
Confirmed panelists include:
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Matt Stagg is senior consultant and founder of MTech Sport, Media & Entertainment, which he founded in 2023. Stagg has more than 30 years’ experience in mobile media and entertainment and sports. He was voted in the top 50 most influential people in online TV for four years, and in 2017, he was awarded the TV Connect People’s Choice award for his impact on the connected entertainment industry. He was previously responsible for developing BT Sport’s mobile capabilities and long-term mobile strategy, and he led the team that delivered the award-winning, first-remotely-produced, live sports event over 5G. Stagg is also non-executive director of Condense, a startup that develops software for creating immersive augmented reality (AR) experiences.
“Most ‘unexpected’ traffic spikes aren’t actually unexpected—they often come from places teams don’t routinely monitor,” Stagg shares. “Years ago at EE, while modelling mobile network peaks, we saw a massive spike triggered not by sport but by the BBC’s EastEnders episode revealing ‘Who killed Lucy Beale?’ It was appointment viewing, and the network felt it instantly. That moment stuck with me. On this panel I’m looking forward to discussing how you design streaming stacks that assume chaos, spot early warning signals, and build operational resilience across workflows—not just by adding more CDN. If you care about keeping streams alive when it really counts, this session will be very practical.”
Corey Smith joined TATA Communications in January 2025 as its deputy general manager of media-enabled services. He was previously at Paramount, where he was senior director, software engineering, in CBS Sports. He led the technical team building the next evolution of advanced production technology, strengthening CBS Sports Digital’s leading cloud-based hybrid television production platform. Smith previously worked on Microsoft’s Xbox Live team, managed Sinclair Broadcast Group’s digital news publishing operations across the U.S., and tackled the next generation of cloud encoding and distribution systems for Activision Blizzard Esports.
When the 2025 Game Awards set a new record with its 171 million livestreams, Smith posted about the milestone for TATA Communications, saying, “Humbled to be part of this event and delivering at unprecedented scale.”
Ian Parr is broadband engineering director at BT Group, the U.K.’s largest internet service provider. Parr has worked in industry for more than 30 years in a variety of senior leadership positions including roles at the BBC, Financial Times, and News International. He is also co-chair of the distribution working group of the DTG (Digital TV Group), an industry body that sets standards and advises and guides digital TV development in the U.K.
“As the move toward IP-based sports broadcasting grows, so too does the pressure on the networks that deliver the live content. Major sporting events generate enormous traffic spikes when streamed over the internet, pushing the limits of network infrastructure, particularly during simultaneous, high-demand moments,” Parr writes for CSI. “BT is spearheading innovation to meet this challenge, and our latest technology breakthrough, Multicast-Assisted Unicast Delivery (MAUD), is reshaping how live content reaches audiences.”
James Pearce is SVP of broadcast and streaming for DAZN. Before that, he was VP of broadcast engineering from 2018 to 2023. This role was “focused on the delivery of as much sports content as possible to a vast array of Internet connected devices,” according to his LinkedIn. Pearce previously worked at BT Group, holding several positions including TV operations director, and he earned his master of engineering degree in computer engineering from the University of Southampton.
“Often, when discussing scaling for live sports streaming, the primary focus is on how to handle peak loads at the start of an event, assuming everything functions smoothly,” Pearce says. “However, it is equally critical to plan for failure scenarios, as they are the moments that can truly test the robustness of our systems.”
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