When #2 Beats#1 in Sports: Key Insights from Professional Fighters League, Swerve Sports, Roku, and Major League Table Tennis

There are hundreds of distinct sports that have been televised somewhere globally. What makes one sport work so well on TV, and not another? That's just one fascinating topic I discussed with four panelists at Streaming Media 2025 at the Fairmont Miramar Hotel in Santa Monica. Two of those panelists were involved with combat sports, which has proven to be a hot format in linear and live channel environments, including FAST. So hot, in fact, that combat also happens to be at the center of a watershed licensing agreement recently signed between the newly formed Paramount+/Skydance and UFC, the #1 combat sports brand in the world.

Paramount Skydance Favorite for WBD but Don’t Rule Out a Saudi Bid

The fate of Warner Bros Discovery is complicated by a politically motivated regulator but whatever happens, streaming is about to get shaken up again.

AWNY: Streaming's Strategic Advantage

Marketers are reconsidering how to capture attention and provide significant outcomes as consumers shift to streaming platforms. At this year's Advertising Week New York, Reed Kiely, Director, Data Insights & Trends, VAB, moderated the panel "Streaming's Strategic Advantage: Precision. Scale. Results" with panelists from Seedtag, Affinity Solutions, Premion, and Digitas.

AI Helps InterDigital Reach Beyond VVC in Race to Develop Next-Gen Codec

Candidates for H.267 already significantly outperform VVC as the hunt for a new video compression standard gets underway

ICYMI: Streaming Media 2025's VOD Archive is Live

Streaming Media 2025, which rolled into sunny Santa Monica last week, featured speakers from Netflix, Roku, Paramount, BET, Google, Warner Bros. Discovery, Televisa Univision, and many more. Check out a playlist featuring the complete Streaming Media 25 program on Streaming Media's YouTube channel to catch the sessions you missed and revel in the ones you want to relive through the magic of VOD.

Free Live Sports to Bring 45 Fast Sports Channels to Devices Powered by TiVo Across North America, Europe, and South America

Agreement between TiVo and Free Live Sports enables a unique multi-screen experience for sports fans

Advertising Week NY: BrightLine CEO and Founder Jacqueline Corbelli Discusses Her Framework for Transforming Ambitious Ideas into Practical Outcomes

At this year's Advertising Week New York, Corbelli sat down for a Q&A with Michael Gewirtzman, the Global VP of Programming at Advertising Week. In the interview, she explained her framework for transforming ambitious ideas into practical outcomes and how anybody can spark change in business and society, from transforming TV advertising to addressing global issues. She also discussed some essential actions that should be taken in today's rapidly evolving and unpredictable world. 

Q&A: Vevo Relies on Data Science for Optimized Ad Experiences

Independent streaming platform and leading music video network Vevo has been collaborating with data science company Domino to leverage AI, with the goal of enhancing both its ad performance and the viewer experience. I spoke to Natasha Potashnik, head of data, research, and measurement at Vevo, and Thomas Robinson, COO of Domino, to dig deeper into the use case and to discuss the role of AI in Vevo's business strategy. 

Publica and Samsung Ads Announce Next Phase of Dynamic Partnership: A Q&A With Publica’s Cameron Miille and Joe Melaragno of Samsung Ads

Publica by IAS has announced the next phase of its multi-year global partnership with Samsung Ads. Publica enables Samsung Ads to enhance its ad-supported service offering with a seamless, TV-like viewer experience while more effectively monetizing video programming across CTV inventory.  In this Q&A, Cameron Miille, Chief Revenue Officer of Publica, ad Joe Melaragno, Head of Channel Sales, Samsung Ads, discuss the details of this new phase and its unique elements. 

Loyalty Pays: A Q&A on the Power of Bank-based Indirect Streaming Bundles with Bango's Giles Tongue

A revealing new report from Bango, "Loyalty pays: the bundle economy advantage," offered surprising insights into the increasing role banking incentives are playing in the growth of indirect streaming bundles, and how streaming bundle offerings in turn are fostering greater loyalty among bank customers. With Gen Z customers likely to churn from one bank to another 5x faster than their Boomer counterparts, streaming bundles are far more effective than the toaster offers that hooked their parents and grandparents in keeping their accounts in one place longer. 

Closing the Anti-Piracy Loop: A Q&A With Friend MTS

Anti-piracy provider Friend MTS (aka FMTS) recently launched a Piracy Investigation Services solution at IBC 2025. These "covert intelligence services" "locate those responsible for illicit streaming services and equip content owners with the necessary information to take appropriate action." To dig into exactly what Piracy Investigation Services does, I interviewed Dave Gilmore, VP of intelligence at FMTS.

Monetizing Sports on FAST: A Q&A With Free Live Sports' Cathy Rasenberger and Amagi's Srinivasan KA

In this Q&A with Free Live Sports Co-Founder Cathy Rasenberger and Amagi President Srinivasan KA, we discuss a new partnership that makes Amagi the exclusive monetization partner for Free Live Sports' entire FAST inventory, and what the deal reveals about the state of sports on FAST and how FAST monetization continues to evolve.

Video entertainment resilient to economic distress

Price inflation and wage squeeze are not putting a dampener on "TV" as consumers ratchet up their spend and their time spent on home video entertainment, according to the latest 2025 Video Trends Report from TiVo. The average number of services used by consumers is up too with the average number of FAST channels watched by viewers almost doubling year on year but SVOD churn has increased.

Fubo Shareholders Approve Business Combination with the Walt Disney Company’s Hulu + Live TV

FuboTV Inc. (d/b/a/ Fubo) (NYSE: FUBO), the leading sports-first live TV streaming platform, announced today that its shareholders have approved its previously announced transaction with The Walt Disney Company (collectively with its subsidiaries, "Disney") to combine Fubo's business with the Hulu + Live TV business (the "Transaction").

Fans in the Feed: Mining the Untapped Gold of Fan-Created Sports Content

Today every sports fan has a camera in their pocket. Every goal, reaction and celebration can be clipped, shared, and spread within seconds. In many ways, these moments feel more authentic than the broadcast itself. But here is the problem: most of that content never makes it into the official feed. It lives on social, disconnected from the live coverage, even though it is what fans are already watching, sharing and talking about.

Worldpanel's Dominic Sunnebo Discusses New Data on Live Sports Streaming and New Subscriber Growth

Is live sports streaming driving new subscription growth on major platforms like Netflix, Prime, and Disney+? In this exclusive interview with Streaming Media's Jan Ozer, Worldpanel by Numerator's Dominic Sunnebo discusses new data from Q2 2025 exploring the impact of premium live sports and localized content on new customer acquisition on subscription and hybrid ad-tiered platforms across the paid CTV ecosystem.

AI and Contextual Advertising: A Q&A With Comcast Advertising’s Kristin Shumaker and FreeWheel’s Larry Allen

Comcast Advertising has released new research on the effects of contextual alignment in advertising. In this Q&A, Kristin Shumaker, Comcast Advertising Analyst, and Larry Allen, VP of Global Strategy for Addressable, Data, and Measurement Partnerships for FreeWheel, expand on the details of the report's findings and how it shows the ways that advertisers and publishers can best harness the power of contextual alignment.

Kiswe and Joe Hand Productions Talk New D2C App, Future of OOH Sports Streaming

Interactive D2C app developer Kiswe has partnered with Joe Hand Promotions, a provider of out-of-home live sports and entertainment distribution to bars and restaurants to develop the Joe Hands Promotion App, a new OOH D2C streaming designed to set "a new standard for how venues market and operationalize live sports, and how fans gather to experience them together." To gain more insight into the specifics of what this app delivers, how it leverages both Joe Hand Promotions' distribution networks and Kiswe's expertise in interactive streaming, and current and emerging challenges and opportunities for OOH live sports streaming, I spoke with Kiswe CMO & Co-Founder Wim Sweldens and Joe Hand Promotions President Joe Hand, Jr.

SM 2025: Streaming Veteran & Live Ops Expert Bhavesh Upadhyaya Talks AI & Content Authenticity

Streaming Media 2025 Conference Chair Andy Beach sits down with SVTA Subject Matter Expert Bhavesh Upadhyaya for an advance look at Bhavesh's AI & Live Streaming and Content Authenticity panels at Streaming Media 2025, coming up October 6-8 in Santa Monica.

YouTube, TikTok attacked for control of audience

Social media are essential to monetization but leaves content owners vulnerable, said Candle Media CEO Kevin Mayer; while UK government threatens to force YouTube to promote BBC and ITV news content to prop up social cohesion.