Elan Ganz Broadcast delivery has spent the past decade splitting into satellite, IP, cloud, OTT, and FAST running in parallel — and the vendors at IBC2026 are all pitching some version of the same fix: one operational layer instead of six separate ones. This guide breaks down what’s actually changed, what to expect on the floor, and … Read more
Composable Broadcast Architecture: The Six Layers and a Practical Migration Path A composable broadcast stack — ingest, transcoding, playout, monitoring, delivery, and monetization built as modular capabilities behind one control point — is what actually reduces the 2am “which vendor owns this problem” scramble. Here are the six layers that make it up and a … Read more
Does a TV Station Actually Have a Mission Control? What “One View” Really Requires The broadcast industry has started borrowing the “Mission Control” phrase from air traffic control towers to describe a single operational view over playout, monitoring, EPG, OTT, and FAST — but the term gets applied to genuinely different products, and knowing which … Read more
What’s Actually in the Box: The Full Service Inventory Behind a Live Sports OU Contract Most broadcasters distributing live sports globally don’t own a single satellite, teleport, or fiber route — they book capacity and services per event through Occasional Use (OU). The part that gets glossed over in most vendor pitches is exactly what’s … Read more
Your Uplink Sits Idle Most of the Year. That’s the Real Cost of Owning One. The simplest way to distribute a live sports event internationally is to outsource the delivery chain to a managed Occasional Use provider rather than build a permanent broadcast network. The reason isn’t equipment cost — it’s utilization. A federation running … Read more
Linear Isn’t Being Replaced. It’s Being Asked to Share a Library. Broadcasters moving from fixed schedules to on-demand libraries almost never shut linear down — they keep it running for live events and appointment viewing while repackaging the same content into on-demand and FAST channels. The real challenge isn’t the business decision to do this; … Read more
5G changes live video contribution by making public mobile networks a viable primary path to air, but only when paired with bonded transmission and automated network management. Raw 5G alone is not broadcast-grade. This guide breaks down what’s actually changed, what hasn’t, and how the leading field-unit vendors compare on the part that matters most: … Read more
Short answer: any modern cloud gateway can pull a Zoom call, YouTube stream, or social feed into a broadcast-ready signal, but the vendors diverge sharply on where they’re strongest, field-hardware reliability, IP-scale contribution, or an all-browser production stack, and picking the wrong one for your team’s workflow is the mistake that actually costs money. This … Read more
Count Your Logins. That Number Is Your Real Operating Cost. The clearest measure of operational risk in a modern broadcast business isn’t a budget line, it’s how many separate systems your team logs into to run one channel. Distribution has fragmented across satellite, IP, cloud playout, OTT, and FAST faster than the tools used to … Read more
FAST Growth Isn’t a Launch Problem Anymore. It’s a Portfolio Problem. FAST channel counts have climbed nearly 76% since 2023, reaching almost 1,850 active channels worldwide, with viewing and ad revenue climbing right alongside them. Launching a single FAST channel is straightforward. The infrastructure question that actually matters is whether an organization can run a … Read more