Fall 2026

Magazine Features

AI's Streaming Stack: Image Interpretation

The companies covered here have substantially leveraged AI or incorporated it into their currently shipping tech. The representatives I spoke to discuss some very interesting approaches for what essentially is image interpretation, including detecting if content has been tampered with using AI, local AI processing, and automated clip generation such as vertical formatting.

Presenting the 2026 Streaming Media Readers’ Choice Awards

The envelope please… Here we present 15 top tech solutions of 2026, as chosen by the readers of Streaming Media.

Profitability Is Power: NYPR CEO and President Christy Tanner Discusses Free News, FAST Sports, and Transitioning to Public Media

In this interview, New York Public Radio (NYPR) president and CEO Christy Tanner discusses her long and varied career in media, from her early days in the pre-digital era working for the Associated Press (AP) to the ways that she worked to optimize growth and influence at streaming organizations such as CBS Interactive and to raise the profile of women's sports at Swerve TV.

Review: Magewell Director Plus

In this review, I'll tell you about the new Magewell Director Plus all-in-one streaming device … and how I tried to kill it. 

The Match Is No Longer the Beginning of the Journey

The sports industry spends a lot of time discussing how to attract younger audiences. Every conference seems to feature a panel on Gen Z viewing habits. Every strategy document contains a section on fan acquisition. Every rights holder, broadcaster and streaming platform is searching for the next generation of supporters. Yet despite all this attention, I often feel we are asking the wrong question.

Zero-Sum Game: Calculating and Managing Streaming TCO

While total cost of ownership spans an encyclopedic number of operational touchpoints, managing a video P&L ultimately comes down to making targeted, high-impact architectural choices.

Editor's Note

Fair Trade

Even as technology trade shows like IBC, which opens at RAI Amsterdam just as this issue goes to press, atomize those experiences by industry rather than packaging them for popular consumption, they promise "see the world of tomorrow" excitement without the nationalistic and imperialistic baggage associated with it at many of the world's fairs of the 19th and 20th century.

Spotlights

Five seconds used to count as low latency. Now only 16% agree.

Igor Oreper discusses the latest findings of Bitmovin's Video Developer Report

Readers' Choice Awards Winners' Circle: Ateme

Mickael Raulet explains how Ateme are applying decades of compression expertise to immersive video.

Readers' Choice Awards Winners' Circle: EZDRM

Olga Kornienko explains that EZDRM have expanded beyond core Digital Rights Management origins, while maintaining the fundamental mission of protecting and enhancing media revenue streams.

Readers' Choice Awards Winners' Circle: LiveU

LiveU's Dan Pisarski talks pushing the boundaries of IP video transmission and reliability with the LiveU LU900Q

Readers' Choice Awards Winners' Circle: Wowza

Michael Vitale explains that reliable, extensible, and flexible media infrastructure can solve streaming's toughest challenges. 

Your Competitors Are Serving the Same Ads for 30% Less. The Difference Is the Server.

Ad tech teams optimize the code. They rarely question the server. Here is what that costs—and what one platform changed to fix it.

Your Library Is Already a Linear Channel. Your Platform Just Doesn't Know It Yet.

Aviion previews a unified live and on-demand model at IBC2026: 24/7 channels built from existing content, no playout hardware, and a live state that stays correct on every screen.

The Producer's View

Lessons in Live Verticalization and Dual-Aspect Streaming

So, how do you meet your audience "where they are" if you don't know where they'll be when they see your video? You stream it both vertically and horizontally at the same time, and you leverage technology to re-orient your content automatically.