OTT, SVOD, AVOD & FAST Streaming Platform News

NVIDIA announced an update to its GeForce NOW cloud gaming service focused on virtual reality, targeting gameplay streaming to VR devices at up to 90 fps. The post also notes that the game "Crimson Desert" will be playable at launch using GeForce RTX 5080-class performance in the cloud.

Accedo One and Magine Pro have officially launched their previously announced joint venture as Leyra, combining both companies’ SaaS businesses into a single entity. The Leyra offering unifies Magine Pro’s end-to-end subscriber lifecycle platform with Accedo One’s OTT technology and Accedo One Marketplace to provide an integrated OTT SaaS platform focused on engagement, retention, analytics, and simplified third-party integration.

NAGRAVISION recaps discussions from the Connected TV World Summit in London focused on content discovery, AI/LLM-assisted search and recommendations, and competition to control the TV home screen and user interface. Panel participants including Magenta Telekom, One Hungary, and Narrative Entertainment discussed operators’ interest in retaining control of the viewing entry point (often via set-top boxes) and the role of metadata and ecosystem collaboration in improving contextual discovery.

Wowza published a technical guide for troubleshooting common Wowza Streaming Engine configuration problems, focusing on Manager/REST API access failures (service not running, port 8087 blocked, credential and auth-method mismatches, IP whitelists) and licensing-related 402 errors. It also covers ingest and codec troubleshooting for SRT and RTMP workflows, including listener/caller role alignment, UDP port and NAT checks, SRT-to-RTMP republishing considerations, and recommended encoder settings (e.g., H.264/AAC, consistent GOP/keyframe intervals) to reduce buffering-like artifacts and transcoder instability.

The article describes “Disney Plus Verts,” a TikTok-style vertical video feed that is now available to U.S. Disney+ mobile users. It outlines how the feature works, what content is included, and what additions may be planned, positioning the move within a broader streamer shift toward short-form, vertical feeds.

The article discusses Netflix’s engineering approach to operating streaming services at scale, framed around its broader technical contributions to the streaming ecosystem. It references Netflix innovations including per-title encoding, the VMAF quality metric, and its development and promotion of the AV1 codec, while contrasting Netflix’s technical posture with Amazon.

A LinkedIn post cites FASTMaster Intelligence data showing that as of February 2026 there are 1,572 unique FAST channels across nine platforms, with Prime Video (824) and The Roku Channel (693) leading by channel count. It also highlights genre growth from 2020 to 2026, including Sports FAST channels rising from 38 to 115 (over 200% growth) and increased availability of Local News FAST channels.

TheLinkU and Twitch announced a partnership to launch StreamU, a college-athletics-focused livestreaming network built on Twitch. StreamU is positioned to let universities operate branded channels and monetize via subscriptions, advertising, sponsorships, and Twitch’s built-in tools, with TheLinkU providing operational and compliance support. The rollout is planned around Selection Sunday with a larger activation during Final Four weekend in Indianapolis.

Harmonic announced it will debut upgrades to its video appliances and SaaS offerings at the 2026 NAB Show, including a next-generation Spectrum X media server and enhancements to its XOS Advanced Media Processor for playout, encoding, and ATSC 3.0/DTV+ delivery. The company also highlighted hybrid streaming advances such as a production deployment of VOS Media Software on Red Hat OpenShift, plus new server-side in-stream advertising and configurable server-side multiview within VOS360 Media SaaS. Harmonic will introduce an AI overlay service for orchestrating AI functions across its platform, including GPU-accelerated HD-to-UHD upscaling powered by NVIDIA.

Netflix co-CEO Greg Peters said the company is eager to strike a deal to host BBC and other UK public service broadcasters’ channels and content within Netflix, potentially enabling viewers to access BBC content via Netflix rather than iPlayer. Peters cited Netflix’s interface and reach as reasons it could help broadcasters connect with larger audiences, and referenced TF1’s similar arrangement with Netflix as a precedent. He also contrasted Netflix’s economics with YouTube’s model amid reports the BBC plans to launch around 50 public service channels on YouTube within 12 months.

The HbbTV Association published HbbTV core specification version 2.0.5, updating hybrid broadcast-broadband interactive TV requirements. The release formally integrates DRM into the core spec—requiring support for at least one listed system (Microsoft PlayReady or Google Widevine)—and adds/clarifies capabilities including optional AV1 and VVC codec support, formal WebAssembly support, and enhanced DVB-I integration and security measures. The association also plans an RfP to extend its Conformance Test Suite for HbbTV 2.0.5.

Mux describes a 22-day incident (Jan 8–Feb 4) in which about 0.33% of served VOD audio/video segments were corrupted, leading to playback issues such as brief audio dropouts and visual stuttering, without loss of source video data. The postmortem attributes the issue to interactions between JIT transcoding, a new storage architecture, cloud object storage read/replication slowdowns after a scaling change, and a cleanup path that allowed partially written segments to be treated as valid and replicated. Mux reports deploying fixes on Jan 29 and completing remediation by regenerating affected segments and purging CDN caches by Feb 3, alongside planned improvements to observability and support escalation.

The HbbTV Association has published HbbTV Core Specification version 2.0.5, formally adding DRM support to the standard for the first time and requiring devices to support at least one approved DRM system (Microsoft PlayReady or Google Widevine). The update also adds specification-level support for WebAssembly, clarifies and enhances DVB-I integration, and defines optional support for next-generation codecs AV1 and VVC, alongside additional security and interoperability changes.

The article reports that Netflix has warned that millions of users will lose access to the service after a March 2 deadline. The brief excerpt references a linked story for further details that are not included in the provided text.

David Sanderson highlights data indicating that the top eight SVOD services control only 36% of movie titles and 55% of TV series, with the majority of subscription content spread across hundreds of smaller niche platforms. He argues that this fragmentation creates challenges for consumer discovery and for studios seeking to monetize catalog content, and positions infrastructure and data providers like Reelgood, which indexes titles across platforms and markets, as key to enabling better licensing and catalog value strategies.

A market report from OG Analysis forecasts the online video platform market will reach $53.39 billion by 2034. The sector is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 16.89% over the forecast period 2025-2034.

Samsung reports that its free, ad-supported streaming service Samsung TV Plus has surpassed 100 million monthly active users as it enters 2026. The platform’s growth is attributed to marquee live events, interactive fan experiences, and key industry partnerships.

Apple has partnered with IMAX to screen five Formula 1 races at 50 IMAX locations in the U.S., extending the reach of its five-year exclusive U.S. F1 broadcast rights tied to Apple TV. The article also reports that more than half of YouTube’s UK audience now watches on connected TVs and that YouTube is the fourth most-viewed navigation platform in the UK. Additionally, it notes that Stephen Colbert used YouTube to stream an interview that CBS declined to air on broadcast television.

The article examines how rising DRAM and NAND memory prices, driven by cloud and AI hyperscaler demand, are increasing the bill of materials and squeezing margins for hardware-dependent pay-TV models, particularly set-top boxes. It argues that this cost pressure, combined with consumers’ shift to connected TV app experiences, is accelerating operator moves to boxless, app-based distribution. Nagravision highlights its TVkey Cloud solution and OSN’s deployment on connected TVs as an example of delivering a secure, operator-controlled UX without set-top box hardware.

The post states that YouTube Shorts streaming activity has reached unprecedented scale in 2026, highlighting the growing dominance of short-form vertical video in global digital consumption. It directs readers to an external link for additional statistics.

Apple is adding HLS-based video podcast support to Apple Podcasts, allowing users to watch or listen interchangeably, download for offline viewing, and benefit from adaptive streaming quality across devices and the web. Creators will be able to distribute HLS video via participating hosting providers and ad networks, retain control over content and monetization, and insert dynamic video ads, while Apple plans to charge ad networks an impression-based fee for video ad delivery later this year. The feature enters beta in iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS 26.4 now and will roll out broadly this spring across iPhone, iPad, Apple Vision Pro, and the web.

TV 2 Norway has built a largely cloud-based video platform on AWS to scale its live sports coverage to more than 20,000 events per year, including up to 1,000 simultaneous streams, for distribution via linear channels and the TV 2 Play app. Using AWS Elemental MediaLive and MediaPackage, Amazon CloudFront, Lambda, S3, and Step Functions, the broadcaster has automated much of its live workflow, supports hybrid linear/OTT delivery, and reports that about 90% of its streaming and broadcast workloads now run on AWS. The team is also experimenting with generative AI to rapidly prototype tooling such as traffic management UIs.

YouTube has released a dedicated app for Apple's Vision Pro headset, after holding off for two years following the device's initial launch. The move brings a native YouTube experience to the Vision Pro platform for the first time.

The article summarizes key themes from ISE Barcelona around the maturation of live and cloud-based production, highlighting hybrid cloud/on-prem workflows, mixed-protocol IP networking, and remote/distributed production as the emerging norm. It notes a shift toward pragmatic AI applications (captioning, metadata, automation), persistent complexity in live monetization and ad insertion, and growing but still maturing support for vertical and short-form video in production stacks. Overall, it frames the industry as moving through a practical consolidation phase where tools must integrate smoothly with existing workflows rather than promise wholesale disruption.

Synamedia published a blog post discussing how live sports streaming platforms can optimize workflows to scale efficiently and monetize events. The post focuses on the need for platforms to drive engagement and revenue without increasing costs. It aims to provide insights on how to achieve monetization and efficiency at scale in live sports.

The article reports on NBCUniversal’s Peacock streaming service performance during the 2026 Super Bowl LX, focusing on streaming latency. It notes that NBCU, as the event’s broadcast host, kept viewers close to the action, implying relatively low delay between the live game and the stream.

The article live-blogs NBC's 2026 Super Bowl livestream across more than 25 devices and OTT platforms, documenting how the event is delivered over streaming infrastructure. It focuses on detailed technical specifications and performance characteristics of the live stream implementation.

Synamedia projects 2026 as an inflection point for multiview streaming, driven by live sports and scalable infrastructure. The technology is expected to evolve from a feature into a revenue-generating engine. This analysis comes from Synamedia's perspective as a provider in the streaming technology space.

The article profiles Netflix’s recognition as Broadcaster of the Year, highlighting how its UK originals slate underpinned the win. It notes the breakout success and cultural impact of the British drama Adolescence, alongside other UK-focused titles such as Grenfell: Uncovered, Love Is Blind (UK), The Thursday Murder Club, Dept Q, Black Doves, House of Guinness, and Toxic Town. The piece emphasizes that this is the first time a streaming service has received this broadcaster/channel award, underscoring Netflix’s growing role in the UK television landscape.

Comcast has launched a Peacock-branded 4K channel for its pay-TV subscribers that delivers live sports and other programming using its newly branded RealTime4K low-latency 4K format. The service uses low-latency DASH and Comcast’s own edge CDN to get latency close to over-the-air broadcasts, supports Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos at about 30 Mbit/s, and is accessible via select Comcast 4K-capable set-top devices and the Xfinity Stream app without a separate Peacock subscription. Initial content includes NBC’s coverage of Super Bowl LX and select events from the Milan Cortina Olympic Winter Games, though Comcast notes the 4K business impact on subscriber retention and acquisition remains uncertain.

Streaming services are projected to spend $14.2 billion on sports rights in 2026, marking a 7% increase from 2025, according to Ampere Analysis. Prime Video is expected to become the top spender, allocating $3.8 billion (27% of the total), driven by its NFL and upcoming NBA deals, surpassing DAZN for the first time. Global generalist streamers like Prime Video, Apple TV, Disney+, Netflix, and Paramount+ will collectively account for 44% of this spend, up from 31% in 2025.

VPlayed published a guide analyzing the strategic decision to either build or buy OTT software, projecting the global OTT market to reach $1 trillion by the early 2030s. The article contends that custom-built infrastructure offers advantages such as better long-term margins, greater control over roadmaps, and avoidance of revenue sharing and vendor lock-in common with licensed SaaS models. VPlayed positions its own platform as a solution for businesses opting to build their OTT software with flexibility and ownership.

Pluto TV will begin streaming all 11 seasons of "The X-Files" on January 1, 2026, making the series available on-demand and through a dedicated 24/7 linear channel. The new channel will feature a complete chronological run of the series and curated weekend marathons.

VPlayed has introduced a cloud-based solution for media enterprises and broadcasters to launch scheduled online linear TV channels. The platform provides tools for content acquisition, cloud transcoding, playout scheduling, and multiple monetization models including hybrid subscriptions and advertising. The article outlines an 8-step guide to creating an online linear TV channel using VPlayed's platform.

EY analysts advise telecom operators to transition from monolithic architectures to microservice-based systems using TM Forum's Open Digital Architecture. The transition aims to improve network operational efficiency, enable modular integration of AI tools, and facilitate faster service deployment for new revenue-generating applications.

Tubi has made all 70 episodes of the classic 1960s horror sitcom "The Munsters" available for free streaming starting October 1st. This aligns with Tubi's content update for October and precedes a planned reboot of the series by Universal Content Productions and Atomic Monster, with James Wan attached.

BroadView Software has launched new integrated media management workflows designed to unify linear and digital content operations. The system automates assets, metadata, and scheduling across platforms to reduce manual errors and improve monetization for broadcasters and streamers.

Starting September 20, 2025, WWE's Premium Live Events (PLEs) will stream exclusively in the U.S. on ESPN's new direct-to-consumer streaming service, requiring an ESPN Unlimited plan priced at $29.99/month. This marks a shift from Peacock, which will no longer carry live WWE PLEs after August 31, 2025, though it will retain exclusive rights to four "Saturday Night's Main Event" specials per year and the WWE Network library through 2025, while WWE Raw moves to Netflix in January 2025.

Nine for Brands highlights 9Now as Australia's leading Broadcast Video on Demand (BVOD) platform, citing its strong audience reach with 15 million signed-in users and significant year-over-year growth in live streaming minutes. The platform emphasizes its strategic expansion plans for distribution and upcoming ad tech innovations for 2026, including FAST channels, new data products, and AI-driven creative ad variations.

Hydrolix provided FOX with real-time observability insights during the Super Bowl, processing 200 terabytes of data. This enabled FOX to monitor and analyze streaming performance during the live event.

MD Entertainment launched its new MDTV streaming platform using Imagine Communications' Versio platform. The deployment enabled the launch of MDTV within three months.

Apple is reportedly planning to integrate AI-powered search options from providers like OpenAI and Perplexity AI into its Safari browser, according to testimony from Apple executive Eddy Cue during an antitrust case against Google. This development could reduce Google's dominant position as the default search engine on Apple devices, a position for which Google currently pays Apple an estimated $20 billion annually. Cue also noted a recent decline in Safari searches, partially attributed to users shifting to AI search services.

Formula 1 (F1) launched a new F1 TV Premium subscription tier for the 2025 race season, leveraging AWS Media Services to deliver a multiview streaming experience. This new tier offers UHD HDR video, synchronized multiple camera feeds, and a customizable viewing layout made possible by timecode alignment, predictable encoding and packaging, and HEVC tile encoding. F1 aims to create an engaging experience for fans desiring increased data access, higher quality video, and personalized viewing options.

Prime Video will exclusively stream five NASCAR Cup Series races in 2026, including the Coca-Cola 600, as part of its live sports offerings. The broadcasts will feature AI-powered innovations like the "Burn Bar" and "Key Moments," and fan-friendly commercial formats including a double-box view and extended commercial-free racing at critical junctures. An in-app \"Shop the Race\" feature for official merchandise will also be available.

Bell Media is undertaking a multisite transformation project that aims to integrate cloud flexibility with operational control within its broadcasting infrastructure. The initiative is designed to enhance efficiencies and create new revenue streams for the broadcaster. This transformation indicates a move towards modernizing broadcast operations through a hybrid approach combining cloud technology with existing systems.

The article provides a guide on how to build a live streaming website similar to Twitch, outlining key features and technologies required for successful platform development. It emphasizes market analysis, user experience, monetization strategies, content security, and the role of white-label solution providers like VPlayed. The piece also projects significant growth for the live streaming industry, expected to reach $124.57 billion by 2025.

BroadView Software has launched a web-based version of its broadcast management solution, utilizing a single-tenant virtual private cloud architecture. This tool offers functional integration with media asset management systems and external platforms like Slack, enabling browser-based workflows for media professionals.

Tubi will premiere its new original horror-comedy film, 'Slay,' on March 22, 2024. The film features drag queens battling vampires, with a cast including Trinity The Tuck, Heidi N Closet, Crystal Methyd, and Cara Melle. Jem Garrard wrote and directed the Tubi Original production.