Are Premium Streaming Sports Rights Bets Paying Off?

Sports on TV and ads have always gone hand-in-hand. But what happens when streamers enter the picture and invest in premium sports rights? A half-decade ago, most premium streaming platforms thrived primarily on subscription revenue—but now, selling ads might be the only way to make sports streaming profitable, especially given the skyrocketing cost of premium sports licensing. DAZN's Joe Caporoso, SVTA's Jason Thibeault, Omdia's Michael Frank, and Tata Communications' Corey Smith weigh in during a winner-take-all debate from Streaming Media Connect 2025.

Implementing a New Codec in 2025: Key Factors to Consider

Transitioning to new codecs in the streaming industry is never an undertaking to be taken lightly, and bandwidth savings, encoding efficiency, and quality enhancements must be carefully considered and balanced against the challenges of ensuring playback capability for the broadest range of viewers who may be operating a motley assortment of legacy devices. Radiant Media Player's Arnaud Leyder and United Cloud's Boban Kasalovic offer their own deployment decision trees for implementing new codecs in this excerpt from a panel discussion with Streaming Learning Center's Jan Ozer at Streaming Media Connect 2025.

How Meta Deploys and Benchmarks AV1 on Android

In the benchmarking processes for Android platforms to assess their capabilities for decoding and playing streaming video codecs, the primary challenge is the fragmentation of Android specifications. Streaming Learning Center's Jan Ozer speaks to Meta's Hassene Tmar about his team's experience deploying, ramping up reach, and contending with device diversity when delivering AV1 video to its vast array of Android customers. Tmar explains the exhaustive benchmarking work the team members did to test compatibility and how they came to develop their own benchmarking solution in this clip from Streaming Media Connect 2025.

Tech Challenges of AI-Driven Streaming Content Localization and Captioning

The buzz around AI for subbing and dubbing and localizing streaming content is that it makes it far easier than it's ever been before. But that doesn't mean it's without significant technical challenges-particularly for companies like Interra Systems who develop the enabling tech-as Interra Engineering Manager Sana Asfar explains as she enumerates the key challenges and how to overcome them in this conversation with IntelliVid's Steve Vonder Haar at Streaming Media Connect 2025.

How Google and Vevo Leverage AI-Enabled Localization for Saving Costs and Driving Revenue

The case for AI-based content localization is typically made in terms of how it streamlines localization initiatives and dramatically reduces costs, particularly for smaller publishers that might not be able to reach into other markets without it. In this clip from Streaming Media Connect 2025, execs from two larger operations, Google Cloud's Albert Lai and Vevo's Natasha Potashnik, share with IntelliVid's Steve Vonder Haar not only the cost savings opportunities but also how AI-enabled localization can drive new revenue opportunities as well.

Can Multicast Level Up Live Sports Streaming to Parity With Broadcast?

Is multicast the solution to all of live sports streaming at scale's problems that will help it reach the "it just works" level of broadcast TV? How broadly applicable is multicast across different streaming applications? And can it be secured? YouTube's Sean McCarthy, Akamai's Will Law, EZDRM's Olga Kornienko, TATA's Tom Buffolano, and SVTA's Jason Thibeault discuss in this clip from Streaming Media Connect 2025.

Why Premium Sports Streaming Is Shifting to Watermarking at the Edge

For ad-supported streams, one of the many benefits of server-side ad insertion (SSAI) is the ability to protect the stream against piracy by encrypting it at the point of origin when the ad is already inserted in the bitstream. Bu for premium sports streams that are subject to what BuyDRM CEO Christopher Levy calls "high-value gate-crashing"—sophisticated piracy ring-level content theft—watermarking at the edge has become "the model that works the best," Levy says, as he enumerates the reasons for a growing shift to edge-side watermarking in this interview with Streaming Media's Tim Siglin at Streaming Media Connect 2025.

Direct vs. Programmatic for Improving FAST Fill Rates and CPMs

FAST and AVOD are struggling to fill inventory and CPMs are sagging in much of the CTV world. Is programmatic the problem or the solution? Is brand or direct advertising better equipped to turn the tide? Would a hybrid strategy work better? Fremantle's Laura Florence, Roku's Charlie Goodman, Philo's Aulden Kaye Yi, and Vevo's Melissa Sofo debate the best solutions to free streaming's fill and pricing problems in this clip from Streaming Media Connect 2025.

How Sinclair's Tennis Channel International Puts AI Dubbing in Play for Sports Streaming

One of the first areas where Generative AI and AI/ML have made a visible, demonstrable, "on-air" impact on widely distributed streaming content is what is popularly known as "subbing and dubbing," or program localization through subtitles and dubbing into other languages. Sinclair VP Innovation Lab Rafi Mamalian explains how Sinclair been localizing Tennis Channel content since they began distributing it internationally.

AI Hallucinations and Training Your LLM Like a New Puppy

Generative AI hallucinations are real and cause for constant vigilance, but as media and AI strategist Andy Beach points out in this discussion with Ring Digital's Brian Ring at Streaming Media Connect, the large-language models that power Gen AI are only as good as their training, and they'll always try to give you what you want (just like a new puppy) rather than generating content that is accurate and ethically sound unless you train them properly in this early-days era of LLMs at work and in action.

Pros and Cons of Programmatic Advertising

In this clip from their spirited debate moderated by TVREV's Alan Wolk at Streaming Media Connect 2025, Philo's Aulden Kaye Yi makes the case for monetizing CTV content through programmatic advertising and launching effective advertising campaigns through programmatic platforms, and goes point-counterpoint with Vevo's Melissa Sofo and Fremantle's Laura Florence over brand safety concerns, content-matching, and more.

Why Did Netflix’s Tyson-Paul Stream Fail at Scale—Or Did it Fail at All?

Netflix's live-streamed Mike Tyson-Jake Paul fight stirred up a hornet's nest of controversy in late 2024, from "Was it a real fight?" to "Was the stream itself an epic fail?" The streaming fail claims stemmed from 1 million-plus users reporting buffering problems and worse. So, what went wrong? Only Netflix engineers know, assert Akamai's Will Law and YouTube's Sean McCarthy in this clip from Streaming Media Connect. And is a stream that seemingly satisfies 59 out of 60 million viewers such an epic fail? And what can the industry learn about unexpected traffic bursts and other challenges Netflix faced, asks Swerve Sports' Christy Tanner, in what might prove the ultimate tech-centric Tyson-Paul post mortem.

How to Deliver Global Sports Streams at Scale in a Fragmented Device Market

Delivering sports streams at scale even on a regional level means managing compatibility challenges in a fragmented device market where users are watching on a range of devices and platforms, but those challenges are magnified exponentially for global sports delivery when a morass of legacy devices come into play. How do you ensure optimal viewer experience to all of these devices, and is it even possible? YouTube's Sean McCarthy, Akamai's Will Law, Swerve Sports' Christy Tanner, EZDRM's Olga Kornienko, and SVTA's Jason Thibeault discuss these issues in this clip from Streaming Media Connect 2025.

Highlights First: How to Leverage Gen AI for Personalized Short-Form Sports Experiences

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. Fortunately Gen AI is a game-changer for sports highlights and personalization, as Play Anywhere's Pete Scott and Ring Digital's Brian Ring discuss in this clip from Streaming Media Connect 2025.

Choosing Streaming Codecs for QoE and Perceptual Quality

The cynics in the streaming pundit class often liked to say that transcoding video for streaming delivery is about taking good video and making it worse. The challenge, of course, is to make whatever quality degradation results from compression as imperceptible as possible. Choosing the right codecs for live or on-demand streaming requires balancing multiple considerations, from player and playback compatibility to conserving bit and preserving quality, and in this clip from Streaming Media Connect, perceptual quality expert and IMAX CPO Abdul Rehman discusses the key decisions that go into choosing a streaming codec when trying to deliver the best QoE to end viewers.

How Sports Broadcast Rights Impact At-Home and In-Arena Streaming Experiences

Many innovative sports streamers are looking to expand opportunities for interactive sports experiences, including those that connect viewers in the venue with those watching at home. Often the creativity is there and so is the tech, but in leagues like the NHL, NBA, NASCAR, broadcast rights are the roadblock, as Next League SVP Strategic Solutions Tim Brady explains in this discussion with VideoRx's Robert Reinhardt at Streaming Media Connect.

Key Live Sports Streaming Ad Tech Trends for 2025

How will ad tech and ad experiences evolve for large-scale live sports streams in 2025? Is current architecture up to the challenge? Expert opinions vary dramatically, as we learn in this heated debate Streaming Media Connect featuring Paramount's Jarred Wilichinsky, Victory+'s Narendra Nag, Index Exchange's Rob Hazan, and FanServ's C.J. Leonard.

How YouTube and Paramount Maximize QoS and QoE in Live Streaming Workflows

Although quality of service (QoS) and quality of experience (QoE) are critical to successful VOD and live streaming delivery, the metrics used and the workflow challenges are different for live. YouTube's Sean McCarthy and Paramount's Nishant Sirohi enumerate the differences and the key strategies for succeeding with live when the stakes are high in this conversation with PADEM Media Group's Allan McLennan at Streaming Media Connect.

Streamers Take Measure of Nielsen's Integration of First-Party Data

In November, the Media Rating Council approved Nielsen's integration of first-party live streaming data into its national panel-based TV measurement, an approach first deployed with Amazon's Thursday Night Football with the promise of "persons-level granularity" for live stream ratings. As it moves beyond Amazon, how will the rest of the streaming world and its advertisers react? Warner Bros. Discovery's Dan Trotta, Vevo's Natasha Potashnik, and Revry's Damian Pelliccione share their thoughts with Advertiser Perceptions' Erin Firneno in this timely clip from Streaming Media Connect 2024.

How Post-Peak TV Has Changed Streaming Consumer Behavior

How have streaming viewer consumption habits changed with respect to premium TV in the post-peak TV entertainment landscape? Media universe cartographer Evan Shapiro, Deltatre's Alex Gruber, and Hub Entertainment Research Jon Giegengack discuss changes in brand loyalty and awareness, churn patterns, the impact of premium sports, and more in this clip from Streaming Media Connect 2024