Free ad-supported television (FAST) has been a rapidly rising element of the streaming industry since the beginning of the pandemic. This article covers the best practices for launching a FAST channel and how to handle the challenges faced, including insights from key industry leaders such as Jonathon Barbato of Best Ever Channels, DeShuna Spencer of kweliTV, and Paul Kontonis of Revry.
06 Jun 2023
Innovation challenges meet power-consumption realities, with a need to address the balance of both as well as the reuse of old technologies that still have usable life.
16 Aug 2022
Even as fans return to the stands, savvy sports streamers realize that home viewers want more than just a game feed and player stats. FOX Sports, Cheesehead TV, and the Fan-Controlled Football League are pushing the envelope.
04 Oct 2021
Video piracy is getting bigger and live sports providers are feeling the sting. Learn about the tech solutions available during Streaming Media West.
02 Nov 2018
Streaming Video Alliance Issues Best Practices for Online Video Ads
15 Sep 2018
Streaming Media Contributing Editor Tim Siglin interviews Streaming Video Alliance's Jason Thibeault at Streaming Media East 2018
We walked hundreds of miles of conference floors and watched scores of demos to determine the best streaming video products from this year's show.
11 Apr 2018
Live sports video is streaming on every platform, skinny bundles with live channels are thriving, and social video apps are creating the next generation of celebs. Are we near the saturation point for live?
11 Apr 2018
On Tuesday, February 25, Jason Thibeault of Streaming Video Technology Alliance will moderate the Streaming Media Connect panel "Beat the Clock: How to Deliver Five-Nines Sports Streams at Scale." When large-scale sports streams fail to meet expectations, folks can't stop talking about it. Any sports streaming workflow is only as strong as its weakest (or least-tested) link. The more lucrative the license and massive the stream, unfortunately, the larger the opportunity and the smaller the margin for error. So, what do the experts say about the architectural demands and challenges of maintaining five-nines uptime and broadcast quality when the stakes are too high to let either suffer? And what solutions do they recommend? Confirmed panelists include experts from Akami, YouTube, The Switch, Swerve TV, and EZDRM.
18 Feb 2025
On Wednesday, August 21, Jason Thibeault, CEO, Streaming Video Technology Alliance, will moderate the panel "Ex-Factor: Cutting Cloud Streaming OpEx." An expert group will discuss managing and streamlining cloud OpEx and implementing strategies and technologies for making cloud operations as cost-efficient as possible. Confirmed panelists include Eric Bolten of Zixi, John Barber of AWS, Corey Smith of CBS Sports and Paramount Global, and Dave Klee of A+E Networks.
25 Jul 2024
New content and microsite take a deep look into the architecture and data landscape of the streaming video industry
24 Mar 2021
CEO Meg Whitman and founder and chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg announced that the new mobile service will roll out 175 new original shows and 8,500 episodes at a rate of 3 hours of new content per weekday
08 Jan 2020
Limelight Networks and QVC discuss the challenges facing video publishers as they deliver content to multiple screens on a wide variety of platforms
31 May 2015
Jason Thibeault, who will deliver a keynote address at the Streaming Forum conference in London, tells how Limelight has expanded past the role of CDN.
06 Jun 2013
Jason Thibeault, Senior Director of Solutions Marking (Digital Media) & Product Manager, Limelight Networks, says workflow consolidation will be huge in 2013.
05 Dec 2012
While innovation is good at the outset of a transformation (such as analog to digital video), it can become counterproductive to building sustainable businesses. Continuous innovation means taking away resources from making existing technologies more scalable, resilient, and reliable—three traits that are critical to the success of something like a streaming platform.
19 May 2025
At NAB 2025 I set out in search of one irrefutable, real-world example of true sports streaming personalization, an innovative and unique experience that might present a mass-media live sporting event on my screen as it appears on no one else's. I found a contender at the Qvest Engage booth.
15 Apr 2025
The streaming business model must change. Services that rely solely on subscriptions are going to plateau. They will have to continually return to their subscriber base and "milk" them for additional revenue via fee hikes. But by taking the plunge and embracing advertising as the primary part of creating and supporting quality television, streaming services will meet the ultimate need of their viewers: getting to see the content they want.
21 Jan 2025
To really make an impact, we have to put sustainability within a context we can understand. It's hard, whether as individuals or businesses, sometimes to grasp the very huge concept of climate change and then commit to "sustainability efforts" as a way to have an impact. But when there is context, sustainability efforts can be achieved without actually trying to focus on them in particular. Within the streaming industry, that context is power.
03 May 2024
With large sports-streaming operators, WebRTC provides a real opportunity for ultra-low-latency streaming. But those same operators, which spend billions on licensing rights, can't afford to just swap the ability to stream content in real time for basic OTT functionality like SSAI and DRM.
19 Jan 2024
With advances with generative AI, just-intime transcoding, SSAI stitching, and other streaming video tech stack components, companies like Infuse Video are demonstrating that the true vision of video personalization—changing the video content itself—is finally at hand.
04 Oct 2023
FAST programming needs space for the commercials. Unless you intentionally craft that space into your show, it just slices into your content randomly, ruining the mood of narrative content and frustrating viewers just as the show was getting to the "good part." Watching YouTube content on a Roku device is like this now. The random "pop" to commercials in the middle of a scene is very annoying.
07 Jun 2023
The evolution of the evolution of TV is coming soon, hinted at by services like Norsk. I for one can't wait.
30 May 2023
This year's event next week features presentations and fireside chats from leading players in the world of content delivery, from the CDNs themselves to the broadcasters and content owners that use them.
29 Apr 2019