Summer 2026

Magazine Features

Agentic AI Workflows and the Future of Streaming Ad Tech

AI makes it possible to model delivery across live, VOD, and FAST together and to update forecasts as signals come in, instead of planning channel by channel.

AI's Streaming Stack: Engagement Agents

The three companies covered in this issue's column are all involved in bringing more monetization or engagement to today's streaming content. The key differentiator is using AI to delve deep into content meaning and adjacent data to create new opportunities for content formats that previously did not exist. While we sometimes cover tools that are suitable for smaller publishers, these AI tools require a certain scale of content to … well, work at scale. Two of these companies have been around for 10-plus years. The other one is much newer but already has an impressive connection with a media company.

Multiview’s Vendor Landscape: How Streaming Architectures Determine Success

Multiview isn't a feature you bolt on. It's an architecture decision that shapes which devices you can reach, how much you pay to operate at scale, and how much control your product team has over the viewer experience. Server-side, packager-side, and client-side each represent a genuinely different set of tradeoffs across those dimensions. The right choice depends on your device footprint, customization requirements, existing infrastructure, and cost model. This article is meant to give you a solid framework for making that call.

The Perks and the Perils of Pop-Up FAST Channels

The flexibility of FAST channels has led to the emergence of FAST channel pop-ups, which can be created to cover niche content, test formats, and even react to specific events, such as an iconic celebrity's passing, to showcase their work. This vitality has generated a growing demand for pop-up FAST channels, and while the technology to launch them continues to improve, there are still technical, marketing, discoverability, and other logistical issues to overcome. In this article, several industry experts weigh in on both the various benefits and challenges of FAST channel pop-ups and what their continued development means for the industry.

Editor's Note

The Agent's Station

One way agentic AI is making inroads into streaming monetization, as I learned at Streaming Media Connect, offers the potential to complement and free up time for human creativity rather than replace it.

Spotlights

Volunteers to Professionals: The Mobile Fleet Revolution

The Mobile Fleet Revolution is about embracing a new standard of efficiency and accessibility in sports production. By combining the sophisticated hardware of modern smartphones with centralized orchestration, robust contribution protocols, and a genuinely flexible cost model, organizations of all sizes can now deliver broadcast experiences that meet the expectations of a digitally native audience. The fans are already watching on mobile. The question is whether the organizations serving them will produce on mobile too. For the business of sports, the playbook is increasingly clear: the future is software-defined, mobile-centered, and ready to play.

What a Resilient Content Chain Looks Like in IP Video Monitoring

A resilient content chain needs two things: the ability to detect problems fast, and enough operational context to act on them.