IBC 2025: Our Impressions and Key Insights
Every year International Broadcasting Convention in Amsterdam brings together thousands of people worldwide – from engineers and content creators to leaders of major media brands. For us, it’s not just a trade show; it’s a unique opportunity to see where the OTT and broadcast industry is heading, connect with partners, and feel the incredible energy of people who live and breathe media.
This year, we returned from IBC with our heads full of ideas, notebooks brimming with notes, and the conviction that AI, cloud solutions, and flexible business models are not the future – they are the present.
Here’s what our four days at IBC 2025 were like
<u>September 12, 2025 - Opening and New Technology Directions</u>
The first day of IBC 2025 had a clear opening and directional focus, with strong emphasis on three main themes: evolving business models, transformative technologies, and the role of humans in an AI-driven world.
Keynote speeches highlighted that technology alone is no longer enough. Strategic partnerships and flexible business models that can adapt to an unstable media market are now essential. It was notable that few reflected on whether this shift is driven by technology itself or by increasing competition, cost pressures, and the fight for audience attention.
A dominant topic of conversation was infrastructure transformation - moving from traditional broadcasting systems to agile, smarter cloud-based solutions. Attendees also highlighted the growing importance of partnerships between broadcasters and major digital platforms, which simultaneously compete with and offer opportunities to reach new audiences.
Panels and sessions that caught our attention:
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CTO Roundtable: Unlocking potential: Adopting and adapting the new tools of the trade - Maria Ingold, Avi Saxena (Warner Bros Discovery), Simon Farnsworth (ITV)
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The Power of Collaboration: How strategic partnerships are transforming broadcasting - Marion Ranchet (moderator), Elena Petrova (A1 Telekom Austria), Harish Sarma (Yahoo Mail), Jorrit Eringa (Snap), Katharine Wen (Sky), Liz Riemersma (Sling TV)
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Game changer? The impact of Private 5G on live sports production - Brad Cheney (Fox Sports), Jake Kornblatt (Verizon Business)
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Live sports at scale: Breaking new ground with emerging technology - Ken Kerschbaumer (moderator), Colin Phillips (BT), Mansoor Fazil (NBCUniversal), Marcos Obadia (TelevisaUnivision), Prashant Khanna (JioStar)
Conversations at our Hall 7 booth confirmed the market’s drive for collaboration over competition. Our AI-Tester, Operator Tier Launcher, and OTT Platform showcased flexible, scalable content distribution - matching IBC’s opening-day themes.
<u>September 13, 2025 - Creativity and Artificial Intelligence</u>
The second day shifted our focus from infrastructure technology to creative and consumer-oriented aspects. The main discussion centered on how AI affects content production and distribution - both as an automation tool and as a creative partner. Ethics, combating disinformation, and building trust in an era of rapidly spreading content were also key points.
Streaming panels stood out as a highlight, with experts exploring ways to maintain user loyalty while developing new monetization models, including personalized and integrated advertising. A particularly impressive moment was the behind-the-scenes presentation of the documentary Becoming Led Zeppelin, demonstrating how technology and creativity go hand in hand today.
Selected sessions and panels:
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Netflix: Empowering Creativity through Innovation - Victor Marti, Migue Amoedo (Vancouver Media)
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The evolution of AI: Supercharging broadcasting - Damian Cronan (ABC)
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What’s next in streaming? Innovation and experimentation… - Mary Ann Halford (moderator), Brad Danks (OUTtv), DeShuna Elisa Spencer (kweliTV), Elke Walthelm (Sky Germany), Sarah Milton (Everyone TV)
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MovieLabs: Leading the Vision - Richard Berger (moderator), Eddie Drake (Disney Studios), James Crossland (Warner Bros Discovery), Yoshikazu Takashima (Sony)
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Fighting Disinformation and Disengagement - Laura Rhea (moderator), Antonia Kerle (BBC R&D), Emily Shelley (PA Media), Maxime Carboni (Euronews)
From our perspective, the second day was the most content-intensive. Panels on AI, streaming, disinformation, and advertising ran simultaneously, highlighting how creativity and technological innovation are now inseparable.
This day closely reflected the solutions we showcased - AI Content Search, which addresses the growing demand for intelligent search and organization across OTT and broadcast. Panels on disinformation and content personalization highlighted how AI can improve production efficiency, enhance content value, and support our OTT Platform's flexible business models.
<u>September 14, 2025 - The Future of the Ecosystem</u>
The third day was more strategic. At our booth, we discussed with visitors who the winners and losers will be in the new media ecosystem. Panels on rights economics, advertising, and provider transformation emphasized that traditional business models are no longer sufficient - flexibility and combining technology with innovative models are key.
Sports emerged as a testing ground for new technologies, with virtual production and AR drones becoming real directions for broadcast development.
Notable sessions and panels:
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Media 2025: Winners and losers in the new content ecosystem - Jens Richter (Fremantle), Thomas Gruber (ProSiebenSat1)
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70 Years Forward: ITN’s Digital Transformation Journey - Jon Roberts (CTO ITN), Rob Ambrose (moderator)
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Integrating virtual production to transform sports coverage - John Murphy (BBC Sport)
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PGA TOUR Launches Golf’s First Live Moving Drone With Drone AR - Alex Turnbull (PGA Tour), James Japhet (Bolt6), Jon Freedman (PGA Tour)
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Keynote: Rights, Economics, and the New Shape of Broadcasting - Mike Darcey
In our view, the third day showcased the most diverse and multi-threaded discussions. IBC is not just a technology event, it is a space where tradition meets the future.
Discussions on ecosystem transformation and the future of providers are directly tied to our Operator Tier Launcher and OTT Platform, both designed to deliver flexibility and scalability as the line between traditional broadcasting and streaming continues to blur. Visitors noted that IBC panels on new technologies aligned perfectly with our AI-Tester demo, which enables rapid quality verification in dynamic production environments.
<u>September 15, 2025 - Wrap-Up and Closing</u>
The final day of IBC 2025 had a calmer pace. The agenda focused on summaries and presentations from accelerator programs, providing participants with more space for conversations, sharing of experiences, and relationship-building. It was the perfect moment to pause after a busy week and reflect on the event as a whole.
A highlight was the visit of other exhibitors to our booth, many drawn by the launch of AI-Tester and AI-Recommendator, presented for the first time at IBC.
Conversations at booth 7.P09 demonstrated that our solutions - AI Content Search, AI Tester and Operator Tier Launcher are attracting growing interest from operators and potential technology partners alike. In the more relaxed rhythm of the final day, we initiated many valuable discussions that we are confident will lead to future collaboration.
<u>IBC 2025</u> showed us that the future of media lies in the integration of technology, creativity, and flexible business models. Our solutions - AI-Tester, AI Content Search, Operator Tier Launcher and OTT Platforma - perfectly address market needs, supporting testing, personalization, and scalable content distribution.
