The cord-cutter fallacy and the current subscription streaming landscape

Integrating AI Into CTV Search and Discovery

The benefits of leveraging AI in personalising the CTV discovery experience and facilitating fruitful content searches are considerable, but so are the costs. Are there ways that OTT services and platforms can manage or minimise those costs, such as only enlisting AI for more complex queries? Dataxis' Ophelie Boucaud, TiVo's Chris Ambrozic, Gracenote's Ashok Bania, and Future Today's Alok Ranjan discuss token conservation, handling conversational and non-conversational queries, and the "Swiss Army knife approach" in this clip from Streaming Media Connect 2026.

Frame-accurate sync and multiscreen streaming experiences

As streaming consumers increasingly gravitate toward multiview sports and multiscreen experiences that combine content from phones and CTVs and other devices, does lack of sync across devices or different feeds or content sources threaten to scuttle or detract from the seamlessness of that experience? Roku's Margret Schmidt, SVT Play's Annika Bidner, Hub Entertainment Research's Shannon McKenzie, and Chris Pfaff Tech Media's Chris Pfaff discuss various scenarios in which sync is more or less critical in this clip from Streaming Media Connect 2026.

What industrialised illegal streaming is costing the industry in 2026

In this clip from her keynote fireside chat at Streaming Media Connect 2026, Verimatrix's Maria Malinkowitsch offers a snapshot of live-streaming piracy in 2026, what it's costing major sport rightsholders, why the fragmentation of sport rights and the cost burden on fans is making the industry susceptible to pirates, and how the industrialisation of illegal streaming and the rise of "piracy as a service" are adding fuel to the fire and making antipiracy efforts more challenging than ever.

Why streaming antipiracy needs to move from reactive to preventive

Given the vast array of hacks available to stream-stealers and pirates in 2026, reactive antipiracy measures only go so far, identifying or even pinpointing the problem after the fact without preventing it, and often providing little legal recourse against pirates operating outside the regional regulatory environment where a rightsholder can pursue them. In this clip from her keynote fireside chat with Streaming Media's Steve Nathans-Kelly from Streaming Media Connect 2026, Verimatrix' Maria Malinkowitsch explains the difference between reactive and proactive antipiracy measures, and how rightsholders and publishers can pursue more effective approaches to take down illegal streams while they're happening—or at least reduce the number of pirates to "a chasable amount."

Proactive Measures: Live Stream Monitoring and Humans in the Loop

Over the last few months, I've had the opportunity to discuss the evolving practices, priorities, and enabling technologies of live-stream monitoring and QC with a number of relevant vendors, and that word "proactive" keeps coming up. As they describe AI's growing role in optimising streaming QoE, they downplay the ways it might be shrinking the streaming workforce, although it's hard to argue that we still need as many humans in the loop as we once did.

CTV Is Defining the Future of Streaming Ads

While advertising has long been a unidirectional experience, there have been forays into making it bidirectional for a long time. The value proposition is pretty clear. If people are watching a show and an advertisement comes on showcasing a product that interests them, wouldn't it be great if they could grab the remote, push a couple of buttons, and have it delivered to their doorstep?

If Netflix Gets the Library, Can It Take the Stadium?

What the potential Netflix-Warner Bros. deal means for sport. And why it is not simple.

YouTube self-policing isn't working

As deceptive ads, scams, and deepfakes flood YouTube's airwaves, Britain's Liberal Democratic Party argue that YouTube adverts should meet the same rigorous standards applied elsewhere in the ecosystem in which YouTube now operates. Industry bodies Clearcast and Radio Central vet the majority of ads broadcast on TV and radio before the air, while YouTube remains free to regulate itself.

The Rise of Discovery Intelligence

Checklist Report: Ultimate Guide to Maximizing the Value of your Content Library

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