Broadpeak appoints Carl Hurd as ANZ VP to tackle streaming complexity
Broadpeak has appointed Carl Hurd as its new Vice-President for Australia and New Zealand to strengthen its technical support and regional presence. The move is intended to help local broadcasters and operators manage increasing complexities in streaming performance, low-latency delivery, and monetization strategies.
Key Takeaways
- Broadpeak appointed Carl Hurd as VP for ANZ to strengthen localized technical support and operational expertise.
- The regional strategy prioritizes low-latency live sport delivery and broadcast-grade reliability over vast geographic distances.
- Focus areas include managing multi-CDN strategies, real-time analytics, and AI-driven traffic optimization for better unit economics.
- A market shift toward hybrid revenue models, including ad-supported tiers and FAST channels, is driving infrastructure upgrades.
Why It Matters
The appointment signals a shift from treating ANZ as a secondary market to a high-priority innovation hub. As local broadcasters and telcos face intense competition from global streamers, the ability to deliver low-latency live events at scale while controlling unit costs is becoming a primary competitive differentiator. This expansion reflects broader industry consolidation and the need for specialized edge infrastructure to replace general-purpose CDN services. Strategists should track Broadpeak's adoption rates among local tier-1 operators as they transition toward real-time observability and automated delivery decision-making to manage growing operational complexity.
Additional Context
The Australia and New Zealand streaming sectors are entering a period of significant structural change. Per ACMA (March 2026), paid subscription viewership in Australia has stabilized at 68%, prompting a pivot toward revenue diversification. This is visible in the rapid growth of ad-supported tiers; research from May 2026 indicates that Australian subscriptions to these budget-friendly plans grew 46% year-on-year, while interest in premium ad-free options declined by 6%. Major players are aligning around these trends, such as Paramount Australia’s January 2025 launch of Paramount Connect to unify advertising across BVOD, SVOD, and FAST channels.
Live sports remain the primary driver for technological investment in the region. Recent data from May 2026 suggests one-third of all new Australian streaming signups are motivated specifically by live broadcast access. This creates immense pressure on infrastructure providers to ensure reliability; during the Australian Open 2025, Tennis Australia recorded 115 million page visits and achieved a 22% revenue increase following technical improvements that boosted site response times by 64% (per Technocrat, November 2025). The regional landscape is also tightening as specialized providers exit; Edgio officially ceased operations in January 2025 following a Chapter 11 filing and the acquisition of its customer contracts by Akamai in late 2024, leaving fewer independent alternatives for local operators seeking non-hyperscale CDN solutions.
Read full article at 4rfv.co.uk
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