Q&A: Tennis Channel SVP Direct-to-Consumer Matthew Graham Talks Launching, Programming, and Scaling the Tennis Channel App

In late 2023, Tennis Channel brought in AMC Networks and PBS Digital veteran Matthew Graham to spearhead the development of the network's DTC app. In this Q&A, Graham delves into the app's content, monetization, partnership, and growth strategy, as well as how Tennis Channel positions the app in relation to its other platforms and leverages data and audience insights to measure customer lifetime value, personalize content, and inform future strategic decisions.

Multiview’s Vendor Landscape: How Streaming Architectures Determine Success

Multiview isn't a feature you bolt on. It's an architecture decision that shapes which devices you can reach, how much you pay to operate at scale, and how much control your product team has over the viewer experience. Server-side, packager-side, and client-side each represent a genuinely different set of tradeoffs across those dimensions. The right choice depends on your device footprint, customization requirements, existing infrastructure, and cost model. This article is meant to give you a solid framework for making that call.

Agentic AI Workflows and the Future of Streaming Ad Tech

AI makes it possible to model delivery across live, VOD, and FAST together and to update forecasts as signals come in, instead of planning channel by channel.

AI's Streaming Stack: Engagement Agents

The three companies covered in this issue's column are all involved in bringing more monetization or engagement to today's streaming content. The key differentiator is using AI to delve deep into content meaning and adjacent data to create new opportunities for content formats that previously did not exist. While we sometimes cover tools that are suitable for smaller publishers, these AI tools require a certain scale of content to … well, work at scale. Two of these companies have been around for 10-plus years. The other one is much newer but already has an impressive connection with a media company.

The Perks and the Perils of Pop-Up FAST Channels

The flexibility of FAST channels has led to the emergence of FAST channel pop-ups, which can be created to cover niche content, test formats, and even react to specific events, such as an iconic celebrity's passing, to showcase their work. This vitality has generated a growing demand for pop-up FAST channels, and while the technology to launch them continues to improve, there are still technical, marketing, discoverability, and other logistical issues to overcome. In this article, several industry experts weigh in on both the various benefits and challenges of FAST channel pop-ups and what their continued development means for the industry.

The Streaming Industry Is Building for Personalization Before It Solves Discovery

While the industry races towards increasingly sophisticated personalized sports streaming experiences, the fundamental viewing journey for many fans remains fragmented, confusing, and unnecessarily complicated.

The State of AI in On-Demand Streaming in 2026

This is a tale of a few different AI use cases that involve research, localization, advertising, and UX. The first is a public broadcaster in Austria. The second is a TV OS. The third is a well-known vendor. The last is a major media company. What all of these have in common is that their AI applications have moved from the proof-of-concept stage to full commercial implementation.

The State of Streaming Codecs 2026

Streaming codec adoption used to be an engineering abstraction governed by RD curves, BD-rate tables, and roadmap slides that no one outside of R&D ever considered. Over the last 15 months, codec adoption decisions have morphed into a much broader discussion, involving C-level execs from finance and legal. While the precursors to this transition occurred pre-2025, the situation coalesced in 2025. During the same period, we saw one codec step to the front (AV1) and another shrink before our eyes (VVC).

The State of Live Sports Streaming 2026

One streaming platform's increasing appetite for live events combined with titanic global reach means that it will dominate discussion in 2026—and it's not necessarily Netflix.

Streaming Year in Review 2026

Two stories dominated streaming media in 2025: Netflix versus the rest and YouTube takes TV. YouTube may be the bigger story.

The State of Streaming Monetization 2026

How are streaming content companies doing? Publishers, creators, and aggregators have traditionally made the majority of their revenue on subscriptions, so why does everyone want to talk about advertising? Ad-supported content is more affordable. Because most streaming consumers have maxed out their subscriptions, leaving the SVOD market saturated, advertising is more likely to be the dominant incremental revenue driver for streaming over the next several years, based on how media companies are talking about themselves and guiding investors.

The State of Streaming Sustainability 2026

Is it still fashionable to be sustainable, even with AI?

Streamticker: The Biggest Streaming Mergers and Acquisitions of 2025

Here is a month-by-month roundup of the streaming industry's most momentous mergers and acquisitions of 2025 (excluding the competing Paramount Skydance and Netflix bids for Warner Bros. Discovery—a drama that just turned definitively in Paramount's favor at press time).

The State of AI In Live Streaming

As with all streaming workflows, AI has steadily crept into the live streaming technology stack. In some cases, the impact is incremental, in others, profound. From production to monetization, here's a quick overview of where AI has become relevant for live event producers and engineers, and some areas where, surprisingly, it hasn't.

Streaming the Universe: A Q&A with GM & Head of NASA+ Rebecca Sirmons

After launching on Nov 8, 2023, and the sunsetting of NASA TV (NASA's linear channel) in August 2024, NASA+ has become the official destination for all NASA content, whether you are watching on Amazon Prime, Netflix or NASA's website, and app. Currently, NASA is planning to stream the first crewed launch to the Moon in over 50 years, Artemis II (estimated viewership 25M) and will become the world's largest live streaming event, the next moon landing on Artemis III (estimated viewership 250M). In this Q&A, I spoke with General Manager and Head of NASA+ Rebecca Sirmons about how her team built NASA+ and the infrastructure, gear, ops, and workflows that launch live streams at this massive scope and scale.

Review: Media Excel HERO 6000

This review will highlight Media Excel's HERO 6000 and walk readers through the process of configuring streaming using the HERO platform. You'll learn how to deliver live streams, create encoding presets, add audio presets, create channels, and add outputs for playback. The article will also cover how to add roles and play streams.

Presenting… The 2025 Streaming Media Top 100

Here we reveal the 2025 Streaming Media Top 100, our list (appropriately enough) of the top 100 companies in the streaming universe outside of Europe. This list complements the 2025 Streaming Media Europe 51, which acclaims Europe's key streaming innovators and high achievers.

Mining for Riches in the Niches: Dynamic Approaches for Targeted Growth

What does niche streaming mean in 2025? With the vast abundance of content available to TV audiences, how can niche programming be targeted adequately toward specific audiences, and what are some of the best ways these audiences can discover that content?

AI's Streaming Stack: Meet the Media Workflows

How has AI entered the media workflow? For this new column, we'll look at different applications used in the media industry. For this issue, we'll start with asset management, asset storefronts, and localization. While some of this functionality—speech-to-text transcription, translation, voice synthesis, natural language processing, logo detection, facial recognition, and object detection—has been around for a while, the biggest improvement is that much of it is now available on workflows with live content.

Litigating and Monetizing Content Licensing to LLMs

Licensing data to LLMs is a potential revenue stream for streamers much like advertising on CTV platforms: it is an opportunity that didn't exist until recently that has the potential to deliver dividends for years to come. But as with CTV advertising, its viability and profitability won't happen overnight.