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How to Move FAST Forward: Six Action Items for Free Streaming's Future

At Streaming Media Connect 2025 I moderated a session called "FAST Forward" with panelists from A+E, Fremantle, Plex, and Revry. We looked at how FAST platforms and providers can better serve their channel customers. Drawing on insights from the panel, here are six key action items to move our industry forward.

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AI Hallucinations and Training Your LLM Like a New Puppy

Generative AI hallucinations are real and cause for constant vigilance, but as media and AI strategist Andy Beach points out in this discussion with Ring Digital's Brian Ring at Streaming Media Connect, the large-language models that power Gen AI are only as good as their training, and they'll always try to give you what you want (just like a new puppy) rather than generating content that is accurate and ethically sound unless you train them properly in this early-days era of LLMs at work and in action.

Pros and Cons of Programmatic Advertising

In this clip from their spirited debate moderated by TVREV's Alan Wolk at Streaming Media Connect 2025, Philo's Aulden Kaye Yi makes the case for monetizing CTV content through programmatic advertising and launching effective advertising campaigns through programmatic platforms, and goes point-counterpoint with Vevo's Melissa Sofo and Fremantle's Laura Florence over brand safety concerns, content-matching, and more.

Why Did Netflix’s Tyson-Paul Stream Fail at Scale—Or Did it Fail at All?

Netflix's live-streamed Mike Tyson-Jake Paul fight stirred up a hornet's nest of controversy in late 2024, from "Was it a real fight?" to "Was the stream itself an epic fail?" The streaming fail claims stemmed from 1 million-plus users reporting buffering problems and worse. So, what went wrong? Only Netflix engineers know, assert Akamai's Will Law and YouTube's Sean McCarthy in this clip from Streaming Media Connect. And is a stream that seemingly satisfies 59 out of 60 million viewers such an epic fail? And what can the industry learn about unexpected traffic bursts and other challenges Netflix faced, asks Swerve Sports' Christy Tanner, in what might prove the ultimate tech-centric Tyson-Paul post mortem.

How to Deliver Global Sports Streams at Scale in a Fragmented Device Market

Delivering sports streams at scale even on a regional level means managing compatibility challenges in a fragmented device market where users are watching on a range of devices and platforms, but those challenges are magnified exponentially for global sports delivery when a morass of legacy devices come into play. How do you ensure optimal viewer experience to all of these devices, and is it even possible? YouTube's Sean McCarthy, Akamai's Will Law, Swerve Sports' Christy Tanner, EZDRM's Olga Kornienko, and SVTA's Jason Thibeault discuss these issues in this clip from Streaming Media Connect 2025.

Streaming Media Columns

In Defense of (Click to) Cancel Culture

For all its promise, and despite officially going into effect in mid-January, the Fededral Trade Commission's Click to Cancel rule for streamlining streaming and other cancellations remains largely in limbo, due in part to its all-deliberate-speed effective compliance date of May 14 and also because of legal and political challenges from the Chamber of Commerce and others.

The Blurring of Shared Experiences Via Streaming

The shared experience of enjoying a program that's happening at (or very near) the same time as reality is gone. YouTube, Facebook, et al. are typically 20 or more seconds behind when the event happened. Streaming services and apps can have their own pathways and delays. Add more viewers or more processing, and it can get longer.

Is This the End of the CDN As We Know It?

Recent news, like the shuttering of Edgio, signals to many the imminent death of traditional content delivery networks (CDNs). But does it really?

Designing Streaming Experiences for Seniors

As I celebrate my one-year anniversary of relocating to my hometown of St. Louis to care for my 84-year-old mother, I'm looking at 2025 as a year of improved UI and UX for seniors, particularly those with memory issues.

Streaming Media Research

Revenue Opportunities for Weather-Related Streaming

Sponsored by: The Weather Company

Current Trends in Ultra-Low Latency Interactive Live Streaming

Sponsored by: AMD

Live-Streaming Technology Trends 2024

Sponsored by: Softvelum

Media and Broadcast File-Transfer Workflow Challenges

Sponsored By: Signiant