Broadcast Equipment Spend to Hit $11.4B as IP Migration Reshapes Vendors

The near-doubling of broadcast equipment spend over the next decade reflects a generational capital replacement cycle as broadcasters transition from SDI to IP-native SMPTE ST 2110 infrastructure. Vendors including Grass Valley, Harmonic, and Imagine Communications face a revenue model shift from one-time hardware sales toward cloud-native playout and SaaS subscriptions — the market's fastest-growing commercial segment — which reduces rack-space requirements by up to 60% and enables multisite redundancy without hardware duplication. Watch whether streaming service providers, recording the fastest end-user CAGR at 8.0%, continue outpacing traditional broadcasters in equipment procurement, which would reward vendors with stronger cloud-native portfolios and compress margins for pure-hardware suppliers.

Haivision's 2026 Broadcast Transformation Report, based on 1,300+ broadcast professionals, found SMPTE ST 2110 adoption at 30% of respondents in 2026, up from 26% in 2025 — though SDI infrastructure remains dominant at 82% usage. AI adoption among broadcasters rose from 25% to 27% year-over-year, with 64% citing AI as the technology expected to have the greatest impact on production over the next five years. Remote production remained the top technology priority for the fourth consecutive year, cited by 41% of respondents (per Haivision, 2026).

At NAB 2026, Devoncroft reported that "IP Infrastructure Upgrades" topped its Global M&E Project Index for 2025, ahead of AI and cloud-based workflows, with peak ST 2110 spend expected within 18 to 24 months. Systems integrator BeckTV noted that falling SDI-to-IP gateway costs have made 2110 core replacements viable even for smaller stations. Devoncroft's Joe Zaller observed that the control software market for 2110 routing has now surpassed the traditional routing switcher market, shifting vendor revenue from hardware to software (per TVNewsCheck, April 2026).

European public broadcasters continue to anchor large-scale ST 2110 builds. France Télévisions became the first broadcaster to deploy Imagine Communications' SNP-XS, ordering 60 units to interconnect regional stations with Paris-area data centers, targeting full media exchange by end of 2026 (per Advanced Television, May 2026). RAI awarded Imagine a three-year framework contract for SDI-to-IP migration spanning more than 25 locations nationwide (per Broadband TV News, February 2026).

On the advertising side, IAB and PwC reported digital video ad revenue reached $78 billion in 2025, growing 25.4% year-over-year (per IAB, April 2026), reinforcing the streaming infrastructure investment cycle that the MRFR report identifies as the single largest driver of broadcast equipment market growth.