MediaTech Radar is a monthly newsletter authored by IABM’s Business Intelligence Unit. It focuses on a spotlight topic in MediaTech and reflects on a series of past, present and future business developments in the industry. In this edition, our spotlight topic is the upcoming IBC 2025, where we would like to share some insights on how IABM’s business intelligence can help our members and Global Engaged Partners prepare for the show and enhance strategic planning. 

MediaTech Spotlight: Leveraging IABM’s business intelligence for strategic planning 

A spotlight topic in MediaTech.  

Trade shows aren’t just about visibility — they’re milestones in your annual strategy. With IBC 2025 approaching, effective preparation goes beyond booking a booth – it’s about equipping your team with essential industry insights. This edition of our monthly newsletter explores how to leverage the business intelligence resources available on IABM’s MediaTech Vantage™ platform to enhance both your show preparation and strategic planning. 

IABM’s MediaTech Vantage™ platform is more than just a publishing hub – it is an interactive, collaborative workspace. Colleagues within the same company can share custom reports, pinned search results, and notes, ensuring teams stay aligned and have the essential data at their fingertips when preparing for meetings at IBC. Users can also access the quantitative data behind our charts by downloading it in Excel format – making it easy to integrate insights directly into presentations and strategic planning. If you are new to the platform, we recommend watching this short video, which provides a quick overview of its key features. 

IABM will open IBC 2025 with the IABM Industry Impact Briefing: Leading Successful Transformations in Media Business, where our Head of Knowledge and Insight, Chris Evans, will debut highlights from our forthcoming State of MediaTech report. To get the most out of the upcoming IABM opening session on 12 September, we recommend revisiting insights from the first edition of the 2025 State of MediaTech report, prepared in the lead-up to NAB Show 2025. At the beginning of the year, IABM data showed that industry leaders expected more conservative investment in the year ahead, with AI & ML emerging as the most important and the fastest-growing technology trend in organizations’ roadmaps year on year. Security followed as the second fastest-growing trend in the same time period. Between June and August, we conducted the next wave of our tracking survey to capture how expectations have shifted throughout the year – insights that will be unveiled in the upcoming session at IBC.. 

Also available to access on MediaTech Vantage™, our Megatrends research series examines themes that are fundamentally reshaping the media technology landscape. In the Business Transformation report, published in March 2025, we explored the key drivers of ongoing industry transformation and outlined strategies to address the challenges they bring. The report features case studies from both end users and technology vendors, with insights drawn from in-depth interviews with industry experts and a survey of more than 50 senior leaders from media and technology businesses. 

IABM data confirms that security remains a critical focus for media technology in 2025 – a topic frequently raised in conversations with industry experts. In response to this growing interest, IABM has published the second report in the 2025 Megatrends research series, Security in MediaTech Ecosystems. This report explores new cyber threats emerging from the broadcast and industry’s shift to software-defined workflows, as well as strategies to counter piracy that now increasingly targets streaming platforms.  

The 2025 Megatrend report series is included in Platinum, Gold and Global Engaged Partners’ member benefits. These reports are also available to purchase independently.  

If your business operates globally or is planning to enter new markets, you will find valuable insights in our GeoTracker™ report, published in June 2025. This report is especially useful for shaping regional sales strategies, with analysis tailored to five macro-regions. Platinum members have full access included in their benefits package, while other members and non-members can contact us for a quote to purchase either the complete report or individual regional chapters. 

For more information about our research offering or to schedule a platform demo, please contact IABM’s Business Intelligence Unit at insight@theiabm.org. 

MediaTech Watchlist: Canal+, Sony, OBS, ESPN, Paramount, Google… 

A watchlist of selected past, present and future business developments in MediaTech. 

• The French Pay-TV operator, Canal+ Group, owned by Vivendi, has received anti-trust approval from the South African competition tribunal to finalize its takeover of MultiChoice Group, the South African Pay-TV giant. The acquisition – worth $2bn – will reduce Canal+ Group’s dependence on the French market, including the French-speaking African countries. Its takeover of MultiChoice continues Canal+ Group’s recent series of investments in TV players in new markets such as Viaplay (North Europe) and Viu (Southeast Asia), where Pay-TV penetration is still relatively stable. The acquisition of MultiChoice will strengthen Canal+’s hold over the English-speaking Africa, where limited Internet connectivity, weak payment infrastructure and low ARPUs are causing challenges to global streaming players. The takeover – giving Canal+ the control over MultiChoice’s local OTT platform, Showmax – will also improve its market position in the region, where global streaming giants are yet to establish a dominant presence. 

• Sony has launched the PXW-Z300, a 4K 3-CMOS XDCAM camcorder, which has a dedicated AI-processing unit capable of authenticating video. The camcorder – targeted for news gathering – can embed digital signatures directly into video files, making it the first camcorder to support the C2PA (Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity) standard for digital content provenance and authenticity. The launch aligns well with IABM’s latest survey data showing that the importance of provenance and authenticity in media businesses’ technology roadmaps has increased from 5% in Q1 to 10% in Q3 2025. Moreover, a few weeks later, Sony reported that the company’s profits increased by 23% in Q2 compared to the same quarter of the previous year, noting that recent changes in trade policies and US tariffs had translated to less of an impact on its global sales than initially expected. 

• Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS) has announced its ambitious plans to produce the 2028 Los Angeles Summer Olympics and Paralympics with fully IP- and IT-based infrastructure and cloud-based production workflows, allowing OBS to leverage new technologies such as AI-driven content processing, 5G and wireless systems for camera operations. Sustainability was mentioned to be a central component of the virtualized production plan. In comparison, at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, 66% of booked remote services were already using OBS Live Cloud, which enabled media rights holders to run live production at scale at a reduced cost through hybrid setups. 

• Amagi Media Labs has filed Draft Red Herring Prospectus (DRHP) in India to prepare for an initial public offering (IPO). Amagi’s AI-enabled cloud platform, enabling media businesses to stream content to Connected TVs and smart devices, is already widely adopted by its three major customer segments: content providers, content distributors (e.g. OTT platforms, telecom operators and CTV manufacturers) and advertising platforms. According to the India-based company, its revenue grew by over 30% between FY2023 and FY2025, driven by the growth in the US market, now accounting for nearly 70% of the company’s revenue. Baskar Subramanian, CEO and Co-Founder of Amagi said: “The world is becoming streaming and all of us are only watching on IP, internet devices. This has changed things for our customers. It’s the fragmentation of viewership. In the early days of cable, you could go to one channel and always watch the content. Now there are so many places where people are consuming content, be it YouTube, Netflix, Prime, social platforms, connected TV devices to everywhere else and this is becoming a big challenge for the broadcasters and TV channels.” 

• ESPN and the NFL have entered an agreement, in which ESPN acquires NFL Network and other media assets in exchange for the league taking over a 10% stake in ESPN. Moreover, ESPN and the NFL agreed on media rights and content distribution for ESPN’s new direct-to-consumer app, which will be launched on August 21st in the US. The deal will also enable ESPN to sell and bundle NFL+ Premium with its own DTC service, catering for fans with more niche content (e.g. NFL RedZone). The agreement highlights the growing importance of live sports in streaming services’ content offerings, owing to the fact that the ARPU of live sports’ subscribers tends to be significantly higher than that of subscribers paying for entertainment and non-sports content.  

• Paramount and the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) have entered a seven-year media rights deal worth $7.7bn, which will bring all UFC events to Paramount+ streaming service as well as to CBS from 2026 onwards. The agreement substitutes the previous deal with ESPN, which was worth $550 per year, confirming the growing value of niche sports rights. Becoming available for Paramount+ subscribers in the US, the UFC matches will be made more accessible and affordable to fans than through the current pay-per-view model, and likely attract new subscribers to the streaming service. 

• In late August, Google revealed that its new AI filmmaking tool, Flow, has generated 100 million videos since its launch in May. The tool, including Veo 3, has the capability to generate text to video, create video extensions, and 1080p upscaling. Elias Roman, Senior Director of Product Management for Flow in Google Labs, said: “What Veo 3 [Google’s newest AI video model] allowed was a much wider set of people to create very compelling videos, engaging all the senses out of the box. You didn’t have to stitch together a toolkit.” 

Thank you for reading this newsletter. If there are topics you would like us to cover or if you have information/ideas that you would like to share, please get in touch with us.  

The IABM Business Intelligence Unit 

July 2025

MediaTech Radar is a monthly newsletter authored by IABM’s Business Intelligence Unit. It focuses on a spotlight topic in MediaTech and reflects on a series of past, present and future business developments in the industry. In this edition, our spotlight topic is the convergence between broadcast, Pro AV and IT technologies. IABM and AVIXA recently launched a collaborative survey titled “Technology Democratization and Broadcast AV Convergence”, in the lead up to InfoComm. The term Broadcast AV has emerged to refer to the use of broadcast quality equipment and workflows by end-users in market verticals outside of media and entertainment as an extension of their AV capabilities. This month we will explore trends and insights gained from both the collaborative survey and discussions held at InfoComm. These recent insights build on themes explored in IABM’s “Democratization of MediaTech” report which is available to IABM members on our business intelligence platform, MediaTech Vantage™.

MediaTech Spotlight: Technology Democratization and Broadcast AV Convergence

A spotlight topic in MediaTech.

The convergence of broadcast, Pro AV, and IT technologies is a trend that stems from common technology innovation, the transition from hardware to software, the migration of point-to-point signal distribution to IP networking, and the deployment of applications and resources in the cloud. The synergies between solutions developed for end-users in each respective market have been compounded by the increasing usage of video not only for entertainment but also as a fundamental communication technology across every market vertical.

While Pro AV markets like corporate, government, education, house of worship, healthcare, and retail are not new to investing in broadcast products, the scale of opportunity has grown as a greater number of end-users in these verticals are gaining confidence with the benefits of using professional video equipment and incorporating broadcast tools into their organizations.

IABM and AVIXA have observed how this market trend is creating opportunities for vendors serving both the broadcast and Pro AV markets respectively, and partnered to uncover more insights into how members of both organizations’ communities perceive this convergence trend by distributing a collaborative survey.

When asked how the convergence of Pro AV and broadcast is impacting their business, respondents to the collaborative survey revealed further insights:

“This convergence represents the flattening of different markets and customer expectations about the capabilities and usability of technology solutions in the marketplace. The result of this is a renewed focus on the outcomes and cost effectiveness of solutions over the technical specificity of the solution to the business challenge.”

Another respondent highlighted “the increasing integration and shared technologies between the two previously distinct industries. This convergence is driven by factors like the rise of live streaming, demand for higher quality video and audio, and the adoption of IP-based technologies. It essentially blurs the lines between traditional broadcast workflows and Pro AV applications, impacting how content is created, managed, and delivered.”

These statements encapsulate common sentiments that are regularly heard in relation to broadcast and Pro AV convergence. For IABM and AVIXA to quantify the aspects of convergence that are having the greatest impact on organizations’ business, participants were asked to rate the extent to which they agreed with a series of statements about the effects of convergence from strongly disagree to strongly agree. The three that ranked the highest in terms of the proportion of respondents from IABM’s sample that answered “strongly agree” were:

1. Broadcast AV will generate new revenue streams for my organization (48%).
2. Broadcast AV will require my organization to seek more collaborations and partnerships with other vendors (38%)
3. Broadcast AV will require my organization to research and adopt new technologies (36%)

This evidences that industry convergence is taking place and will continue as vendors invest in new technology outside of their core field, and are willing to build new partnerships to accelerate momentum into parallel markets. However, this momentum is motivated overall by the goal of building new revenue streams and expected therefore to deliver a return.

Survey participants were asked succinctly, “to what extent is Broadcast AV impacting your organization”. Below a comparison can be made between responses given by IABM’s community and AVIXA’s. While an almost identical proportion of respondents in each sample respectively (80-81%) recognised an impact on their organization, there was variance in the extent to which this was felt.

Among the respondents that indicated that the Broadcast AV trend is already impacting their organization, a follow up question was asked to detail the effect on their business:

“We see the expanded Broadcast AV market in the expanded breadth of customers coming to us, as well as the use case landscape increasing proportionally. This has resulted in new product development and new go-to-market strategies.”

In addition to acknowledging the expanded addressable market created for broadcast products, the advancement of IP signal distribution was highlighted by another respondent as a major influence: “Increasingly relying on IP-based technologies like NDI, SRT, and Dante AV for video transmission, production, and switching. The shift from traditional analog signals to IP-based networks enables greater flexibility, scalability, and interoperability between different equipment and systems.”

For technology vendors to tap into the opportunity presented by Broadcast AV, vendors need to review their product portfolios and identify if they need to develop new products, reposition existing technologies, or tailor their brand positioning and go to market strategy for increased relevance to customers in parallel markets. When presented with a series of considerations for products to be successful in Broadcast AV, the same group of three answers ranked as the top three from both IABM and AVIXA’s survey samples, with a slight difference in order:

When reviewing the responses received by IABM and AVIXA independently, a subtle difference can still be inferred. Broadcast end-users pride themselves on their ability to manage complexity, however that level of ability is not guaranteed in parallel markets, and therefore, ease of use must be the primary consideration for vendors in designing and marketing their products. Meanwhile for Pro AV users that do not necessarily have dedicated video training and Broadcast AV as a competency, among their other competing responsibilities, access to proactive customer support is vital for when troubleshooting exceeds their own capabilities.

To explore this topic further, watch IABM’s Head of Knowledge, Chris Evans, and AVIXA’s VP Market Insights, Sean Wargo, exchange perspectives on how Broadcast AV convergence is resonating with each organizations’ members respectively.

MediaTech Watchlist: France Télévision, Amazon Prime, RTL Group, ITVX

A watchlist of selected past, present and future business developments in MediaTech.

• France Télévision will distribute its streaming platform, France.tv, via Amazon Prime, including live channels and on-demand shows. The deal marks the first collaboration between the public service broadcaster and a US streamer. This news was swiftly followed by a reciprocal content sharing agreement between Disney+ and ITVX that will see each streaming service offering a dedicated showcase carousel of content to host select titles from one another’s catalogues, branded as “A taste of ITVX” and “A taste of Disney+” respectively.
• 26North Partners has acquired a majority stake in AVI-SPL, a leading integrator of AV, collaboration and experiential technologies with 4,400 employees across over 70 offices worldwide. The shares are purchased for an undisclosed sum from Marlin Equity Partners and other selling shareholders. Commenting on the investment, Mark Weinberg, Head of Private Equity at 26North said of AVI-SPL, “it operates in an expanding market, holds a leadership position, and serves a diversified, blue-chip customer base.”
• London Olympia will be the home to The Premier League’s new production department. As part of the move to bring broadcast operations in house, Premier League Studios will take over a 73,000 square foot site at One Olympia, with a 20 year commitment, and be responsible for all international media content production and distribution. A five year strategic partnership with Microsoft has also been announced, that will lend cloud and AI resources to The Premier League’s match analysis, digital platforms, infrastructure, and operations. Richard Masters, Chief Executive of the Premier League stated, “This partnership will help us engage with fans in new ways — from personalised content to real-time match insights.”
• RTL Group will purchase Sky Deutschland having confirmed a €150m upfront payment as part of a deal with additional variables driven by future value creation. The new combined media portfolio will claim 11.5m paying subscribers across RTL+, Sky and WOW. RTL Group which is known for its focus on news and entertainment will gain access to considerable sports rights through the acquisition as Sky Deutschland holds the media rights to Bundesliga, Premier League, DFB-Pokal and Formula 1. Thomas Rabe, CEO of RTL Group highlighted, “the synergies are estimated to be around €250 million per annum within three years after closing, creating significant shareholder value. Together, RTL and Sky will be in an even stronger position to invest in people, content and technology in Germany and in Europe to compete with the global tech and streaming players.”
• EVS opens a new regional hub at Mountain Media Center in Denver, Colorado. The hub is strategically located to offer service and support to a growing customer base operating across the North American time zones as well as housing a training facility as part of the company’s strategic expansion of operations in the region. Serge Van Herck, CEO of EVS, noted “establishing a hub in Denver reflects our commitment to investing in North American resources as a key pillar of our growth strategy.”
• Pinewood Studios have submitted a planning proposal for a new 55,030 square meter data centre with 60 acre nature reserve. The site at Pinewood South will be situated within the Slough Availability Zone and David Conway, Pinewood Group CEO emphasized that the proposal is “in alignment with the critical infrastructure needs identified by the government. The significant investment will bring jobs and additional benefits to the local community with the delivery of a nature reserve, community gardens and learning space.”
• Netflix will partner with NASA to carry streams from NASA+ including rocket launches, astronaut spacewalks, mission coverage, and live views of Earth from the International Space Station. NASA+ will remain freely available without advertisements through the NASA app and online, however the partnership with Netflix is intended to increase the organization’s engagement with global audiences, as Rebecca Simons, general manager of NASA+ outlines; “Together, we’re committed to a golden age of innovation and exploration – inspiring new generations – right from the comfort of their couch or in the palm of their hand from their phone.”
• Turkiye’s Transport and Infrastructure Minister, Abdulkadir Uraloğlu, plans to modernize the country’s broadcast infrastructure with plans unveiled for the construction of 30 new broadcast towers. Inspired by the success of the landmark, Çamlica Tower in Istanbul, the project will replace outdated antenna with a consolidated footprint of towers with “modern, architecturally integrated silhouettes”, that can provide services to both digital and analogue broadcasters with greater energy efficiency.
• BBC Sport posts record digital viewing figures for coverage of Wimbledon tennis championship with 69.3m online requests across BBC iPlayer, the BBC Sport website and app. Alex Kay-Jelski, Director of BBC Sport stated, “this year’s record-breaking digital figures for Wimbledon are testament to the huge appeal of the sport amongst audiences and the power of digital innovation to bring both new and existing fans closer to the action than ever before.”

Thank you for reading this newsletter. If there are topics you would like us to cover or if you have information/ideas that you would like to share, please get in touch with us.

The IABM Business Intelligence Unit

MediaTech Radar is a monthly newsletter authored by IABM’s Business Intelligence Unit. It focuses on a spotlight topic in MediaTech and reflects on a series of past, present and future business developments in the industry. In this edition, our spotlight topic consists of experiences and insights gathered by the IABM team at major international trade events – CABSAT, Broadcast Asia and InfoComm 2025 – which took place in May and June. At these events, IABM not only supported members in the IABM Member Lounge, but also curated stage programming ranging from business intelligence briefings and panel discussions to editorial IABM TV interviews.  

At CABSAT and InfoComm, IABM collaborated with AVIXA by co-hosting panel discussions to inform members about recent trends in Pro AV verticals and other adjacent markets. At Broadcast Asia, IABM hosted a pre-show welcome and networking event, sponsored by the UHD World Association, which was attended by international and regional members to connect and share expertise. The convergence of broadcast, AV and IT technologies was evident at InfoComm 2025 – organized in Orlando in early June – which gathered approximately 30,000 attendees, as IABM hosted a series of presentations and panels on the event’s new Spotlight Stage.  

MediaTech Spotlight: CABSAT, Broadcast Asia and InfoComm 2025 

A spotlight topic in MediaTech.  

CABSAT: 

According to CABSAT, the 2025 editions of CABSAT, Integrate Middle East and the debut edition of SATExpo Middle East – all organized simultaneously in the same hall in the Dubai World Trade Centre on May 13th-15th – were attended by over 32,000 professionals from over 120 countries. At CABSAT, IABM and AVIXA co-hosted an UpStream Dubai, providing a regional outlook of the Middle Eastern market as well as an update about the latest trends in both the global media & entertainment and the broadcast AV markets. IABM’s Industry Impact briefing highlighted that the ongoing streaming boom, especially in the Gulf countries and media businesses’ increased focus on content production for digital platforms and social media, are cannibalizing tech investment that has formerly been allocated to physical infrastructure, making the overall investment landscape relatively flat in the region. While the adoption of IP and cloud is gradually taking off, some major sales channels challenges are slowing down adoption. Challenges include government-funded media businesses’ difficulties with migrating to OpEx payment models for new investments. However, the Saudi Vision 2030 initiative is catalyzing several new greenfield projects, including installs that integrate with cloud architecture in Saudi Arabia, where both AWS and Microsoft Azure are going to launch new data centers in 2025. Our conversations with members in the show confirmed this – several vendors said that they are currently screening opportunities as well as looking for local partners in the Saudi Arabian market. Members’ optimism is stemming from the fact that the Gulf countries are investing heavily in Tier 1 and Tier 2 sports, driving demand for new technologies such as IP and cloud. For more insights, please view IABM’s presentation and watch catch-up videos from the event here. 

BroadcastAsia: 

In late May, IABM attended BroadcastAsia in Singapore, supporting members in the IABM Member Lounge, featuring members in IABM TV interviews and providing a half-day stage programme for the BroadcastAsia Conference, in collaboration with Asia Tech x Singapore. The event included two presentations and three technology panels with themes ranging from technology standards to piracy and immersive formats. IABM’s observations and conversations with a wide range of regional industry stakeholders confirm that the business environment outlook in the APAC region remains stable, but increasing geopolitical tensions and trade restrictions – especially those related to the semiconductor industry – are translating into economic uncertainty and growing supply chain risks. Also, the slowdown of the Chinese economy is having a negative spillover effect on other countries in the region. IABM’s Industry Impact briefing noted that the APAC region accounts for about 75% of global semiconductor manufacturing capacity, making the region a key player in the global AI chip race and AI-related exports. The region’s significant consumer market is embracing mobile streaming with social media platforms dominating audiences’ media consumption, especially in China. These platforms are also investing in Tier 1-2 sports, driving media businesses’ move to remote production and hybrid cloud production as the connectivity gets better. However, the region remains vulnerable to piracy as many media companies still rely on satellite uplinks making the “first mile the weakest mile”. Overall, conversations with members and regional stakeholders highlighted that there is still growth in the region, but that each local market has its unique characteristics that affect customers’ investment priorities (e.g. weak currency in Japan or cheap mobile data in India). More conversations with members at BCA can be found here. 

InfoComm 2025: 

At InfoComm 2025, IABM and AVIXA continued their collaboration launched in Q1 2025 at ISE. In addition to supporting members in the IABM Member Lounge, IABM hosted three insight sessions at the event’s new Spotlight Stage exploring Technology Democratization and Industry Convergence, Automated Production and Skills Augmentation, as well as Selling Professional Video Products as Solutions. Conversations at InfoComm reflected the diverse range of perspectives in this expanded addressable market. IABM members expressed positivity due to the opportunity for new lead generation that industry convergence has opened up, however longstanding Pro AV brands noted many of the same issues IABM members had faced at NAB Show Las Vegas in terms of international customer attendance and the challenges of the current geopolitical climate. From a technology standpoint control and orchestration was front of mind as vendors seek to provide simplified management and interaction with increasingly sophisticated inventories of devices that customers are building out across multiple sites and campuses thanks to the benefits of networked infrastructure. For vendors strategic partnerships, interoperability, and certification are evidently vital to ensure their products are specified by systems integrators or included in product bundles used by dealers and resellers to market to the many different user profiles and use cases. Over the past six months, IABM’s Business Intelligence Unit has extended its research offering to increasingly capture trends related to convergence and opportunities in new markets. IABM’s Democratization of MediaTech report was published in December 2024 and a dedicated chapter on the migration to IP will feature in the forthcoming TechTracker™ report due for publication in September 2025. 

MediaTech Watchlist: Disney, CPB, Sinclair, Creator Television, and others… 

A watchlist of selected past, present and future business developments in MediaTech. 

• On June 2nd, Disney announced that it is laying off several hundred employees in its global marketing for film and TV, publicity, casting and development as well as corporate finance teams to improve operational efficiency. The new job cuts come on top of a series of layoffs announced earlier this year and last year equating to approximately 700 roles, of which the majority have been in TV and ABC News operations. At the same time, Disney has chosen an alternative strategy in terms of its linear business compared to competitors that are spinning off legacy linear services into separate companies, such as Comcast. The company announced on June 10th that it will integrate its linear networks and streaming services together. Bob Iger said in a CNBC interview: “I think there’s a lot more value in a broadcast network if it’s paired very seamlessly with a streaming business. ESPN will be fully connected with ESPN’s digital offering. Disney Channel is connected seamlessly with Disney+. FX and ABC have fed Hulu programming very effectively […] It actually provides us an opportunity not only to grow but also to grow margins in the process as well.” 

• In early June, Warner Bros. Discovery – which also announced the layoffs of approximately 100 employees – plans to split its linear networks and streaming business into two separate entities, as its cable TV business – including TNT, TBS, CNN, Food Network, Discovery, TLC, Cartoon Network and Turner Classic Movies – continues to struggle in terms of revenue and viewership. The announced job cuts aim at improving operational efficiency after the process of reorganizing the company into two divisions: one comprising production studios and all streaming business and the other consisting of its cable TV business. A similar announcement was made by ITV at the end of May, when it revealed plans to halve the number of roles at ITV Studios https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2025/may/20/itv-to-cut-jobs-slash-budgets-daytime-shows-including-good-morning-britainequating to over 220 of its 440 staff involved in ITV’s biggest daytime shows to improve operational efficiency. 

• In early June, France Televisions and TDF continued their 5G Broadcast trials during 2025 Roland-Garros tennis championships. The partnership between the two companies also included smartphone reception tests inside the stadium and broadcasting the game in native UHD by using TDF’s 5G Broadcast technology. The partnership aims at enabling viewers to watch TV outdoors on their smartphones free of charge without using public internet or mobile data. Amazon Prime Video – sharing the domestic TV rights to Roland-Garros with France Televisions – is also now offering AWS Private 5G as a managed service, but it was not part of the trial. 

• On June 4th, the Trump administration asked Congress to repeal $9.4bn in previously approved funding, which includes $1.1bn in cuts to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), which in turn provides funding to BBS, NPR and public media. The government has issued proposals that would stop all CPB funding permanently, except a sum of $30mn required to shut down the agency. Kate Riley, CEO at America’s Public Television Station said: “This proposed elimination of CPB funding will result in immediate and serious cuts of stations’ local services and in some cases the total closure of stations, particularly in rural communities.”  

• On June 5th, SMPTE introduced the initial documents defining the new Catena control plane standard, which is an open source, vendor and platform agnostic solution for control of media devices and services. Chris Lennon, Director of Standards Strategy at Ross Video and a SMPTE Fellow described: “With media workflows now spanning on-prem, cloud and hybrid environments, the need for a unified, secure and vendor-agnostic control plane is more urgent than ever. By introducing the initial Catena documents into the SMPTE Standards Community, we’re inviting the broader industry to help shape a solution that works for everyone, regardless of where their services reside or what platform they use.” 

• On June 11th, Sinclair reported record-breaking growth and new content acquisitions for its free, over-the-air multicast networks Charge (+21% YoY in terms of viewership), Comet (+17%), Roar (+40%) and The Nest over the past five months. According to Sinclair, the growth stems from the acquisition of key series, increased distribution in major market areas, the rebranding of its networks (e.g. TBD to Roar) and various multi-platform events like CHARGECON and Comet Fest. The growth figures reflect the importance of content offerings, expanded reach and free content when attracting new audiences. 

• In June, Creator Television – a new FAST channel targeting YouTubers launched in January 2025 – announced that it is currently in the FAST channel lineups of Sling’s Freestream, Plex and Anoki Live TVx. Creator Television is an interesting example of how FAST channels can aggregate original content by collaborating with the creator economy. Creator Television already covers content from several top influencers like Nigel Ng, Q Park, Jenny Lorenzo and Evan Yee. Joe Ochoa, co-founder at Creator Television said: These creators already know how to command attention and build community. We are just giving them a new platform to grow. This content hasn’t been seen anywhere else – it’s made for TV, but with the tone and authenticity of social.” 

Thank you for reading this newsletter. If there are topics you would like us to cover or if you have information/ideas that you would like to share, please get in touch with us.  

The IABM Business Intelligence Unit