The 2025 Streaming Media All-Stars

After a 12-year hiatus, Streaming Media is bringing back the Streaming Media All-Stars for 2025 to pay tribute to a select group of key technology innovators who are driving and disrupting the streaming industry.

Working with a small panel of industry experts and Streaming Media contributing editors, we generated, vetted, and hemmed and hawed over a long list of names and winnowed it down to the best of the best.

As Streaming Media editor-in-chief emeritus Eric Schumacher-Rasmussen wrote in the last Streaming Media All-Stars article in 2013, “The best thing about choosing our annual list … is realizing how far online video has come since we selected our inaugural team in 2008.” A few who made the list in its earlier incarnations have returned and retained their all-star status in 2025, while a larger group of innovators and disruptors appears for the first time on a list of all-stars in our pages, although all have racked up noteworthy honors elsewhere.

I wonder if those visionaries who joined our earlier all-star teams of 2013 and before expected or even imagined that the industry and technology would evolve as they have in the intervening years—and how many of their one-time “next big thing” predictions materialized and how much bigger they became.

As in past years, we’ve asked each of our All-Stars a handful of questions; their responses tell you not just about them, but about where our industry is and where it’s going:

What is your proudest achievement?
What’s the “next big thing” you’re working on?
What’s the biggest trend in online video right now?
What’s the biggest challenge facing the industry?

florence agboma ski

Florence Agboma

Senior Product Manager—Video, Sky

CONCURRENT ROLES

Chair of SVTA’s Live Streaming Working Group
Board of Directors for Women in Streaming Media

PROUDEST ACHIEVEMENT

Women remain underrepresented in our industry, and this is unlikely to change overnight. I’m incredibly proud of my team’s work within Women in Streaming Media, where I head the Speaker Engagement pillar. We’ve successfully placed nearly 65 female leaders on panels at major industry headline events, ensuring their visibility on international platforms. Seeing them take the stage, own the conversation, and share their expertise is a source of immense pride.

BIGGEST TREND

AI in content creation is transforming media production, from enhancing visual effects to enabling studios to produce high-quality content at scale. We already see its usage in the media space in content recommendations and other areas. Ethical concerns remain a key consideration. Looking ahead, AI-generated content could become adaptive, created in real time based on the user feedback and context, fundamentally changing the way content is consumed.

BIGGEST CHALLENGE

The fragmentation of the streaming landscape is driving consolidation and the bundling of multiple streaming services, making it easier for users to find content quickly in response to subscription fatigue. As competition grows, platforms with the strongest direct relationships with their audiences will gain more control over search, recommendations, and personalized experiences, ultimately improving retention. Ownership of the audience data will become even more critical.

Anupama Anantharaman

VP Product Management, Interra Systems

CONCURRENT ROLES

Chair of SVTA’s Live Streaming Working Group
Board of Directors for Women in Streaming Media

PROUDEST ACHIEVEMENT

I take great satisfaction in having spearheaded the creation of the world’s first end-to-end software-defined monitoring platform, ORION. From its inception through to its execution, my involvement with the ORION content monitoring platform has been a deeply rewarding experience. Collaborating with media companies, I have supported them in utilizing ORION to monitor their services effectively, thereby enhancing the quality of video delivery and improving overall service standards. This pioneering project not only advances the field of media technology but also sets a new benchmark for quality assurance in video streaming.

BIGGEST TREND

The integration of AI/ML in quality assurance is transforming how we approach testing and quality control. By leveraging ML for predictive analytics and automation, companies are significantly enhancing the efficiency of their testing processes and the reliability of their outputs. This is affecting many areas in streaming, including compression, classification, consumer behavior patterns, and monetization. Although the true impact of AI is still being debated, there’s a clear trend toward its adoption across various industries. This widespread adoption speaks to the growing confidence in AI’s potential to revolutionize traditional practices and deliver superior results in quality assurance.

BIGGEST CHALLENGE

One of the most pressing challenges the streaming media industry faces in 2025 is the escalating competition among platforms, necessitating a sustainable balance between growth and profitability. As these services evolve, they are confronted with economic pressures and a highly fragmented audience that demands quality content alongside flexible viewing options. This dynamic has led to significant struggles within the industry as companies grapple with the mounting costs associated with content production and distribution, particularly in managing both IP and OTT video streams. Finding effective strategies to manage these challenges is crucial for sustainability in the streaming landscape.

Andy Beach

Media & AI Strategist, Author

PREVIOUS ROLE

CTO for Media and Entertainment, Microsoft

PROUDEST ACHIEVEMENT

I’m incredibly proud of my 12-year tenure at Microsoft, where I had the privilege of working on numerous forward-thinking projects. A highlight was spearheading the collaboration with the NBA to develop a cutting-edge OTT delivery platform. This initiative not only revolutionized how basketball fans engage with content, but also allowed us to integrate AI agents, enhance remote production capabilities, and significantly improve metadata and search functions within their archives.

NEXT BIG THING

Having recently departed Microsoft, I’m currently in an exploratory phase, advising several startups that sit at the intersection of media and AI. While still somewhat under the radar, I’m excited about the potential of these ventures to redefine content creation and distribution in innovative ways. I’m also dedicating more time to writing and exploring various creative avenues within the Media+AI landscape.

BIGGEST TREND

The business of streaming is undergoing significant transformation. The biggest trend is the intensifying battle for control over distribution. As technology companies tighten their grip, traditional media entities are pushing back. Meanwhile, AI is playing a dual role by accelerating both fragmentation and consolidation, reshaping how content is distributed and consumed across different platforms.

BIGGEST CHALLENGE

The streaming industry faces the critical challenge of balancing platform dominance with sustainable business models. As tech giants strive to control discovery and distribution, traditional media companies are struggling to reclaim their space. Additionally, AI-driven personalization is complicating this dynamic, potentially reinforcing walled gardens at the expense of content diversity. Creators must navigate an ever-changing ecosystem dominated by platform algorithms, changing monetization policies, and a blurring line between traditional and creator-driven content.

Sergey Fedorov

Director of Engineering, Live Streaming, Netflix

PROUDEST ACHIEVEMENT

In my 2 1/2 year journey together with an amazing cross-functional Netflix Live team, we’ve built the Live product from ground zero to more than 65 million concurrent streams for the Paul vs. Tyson fight and then the NFL on Christmas Day (and Beyonce Bowl!). It was an incredibly challenging period of my career, with many ups and downs. While we’re still far from achieving 100% perfection at Live, seeing how far we’ve come in such a short amount of time has brought a lot of pride and excitement.

NEXT BIG THING

Next is making live events on Netflix reach a level of scalability and reliability that is comparable to linear TV, while leveraging advantages of streaming technology to enable personalized viewing experiences. I try to remind myself that linear TV has had more than 70 years to get it right, and at Netflix, we’ve only been working on this problem a short time, so I’m ready for a long, fun, and challenging journey ahead.

BIGGEST TREND

I’m definitely biased toward live, as that’s the area I pay pretty much all of my attention to. I see an accelerating trend of more and more live events transitioning from traditional media to streaming. I believe we are at the tipping point where this will further accelerate, and in 5–10 years, streaming will be a mainstream way for viewers to consume live content.

BIGGEST CHALLENGE

Delivering live content on streaming services like Netflix brings new challenges to the internet ecosystem, developing new consumer habits and optimizing streaming technology. It pushes the boundaries on adaptive streaming to minimize buffering, reduce latency, and keep streams synchronized. What excites me are the huge opportunities to enable richer live experiences through streaming for consumers, personalized playback controls, better engagement through potential features like live voting, and more robust ad targeting.

SHALINI GOVIL-PAI ANDROID TV

Shalini Govil-Pai

VP & GM, Android TV, Google

CONCURRENT ROLE

Member of the Board of Directors, YouGov

PROUDEST ACHIEVEMENT

Spearheading the creation of the Google TV platform and driving its growth. Over the years, I’ve led our teams to develop a transformative entertainment experience for viewers that combines entertainment with the best of Google—from Search to YouTube and now Gemini. Google TV is now the world’s leading TV platform, and Google CEO Sundar Pichai has called Google TV “one of the best products Google has ever made.”

NEXT BIG THING

Our current focus is creating experiences that will evolve the ways we interact with our TVs—making them more intuitive to our needs and helpful in the home. The next big step we’re taking in that direction is transforming the voice experience on Google TV devices
by integrating Gemini models. The functionalities unlocked by AI will introduce new possibilities in how we find, view, and create media.

BIGGEST TREND

When I started working at YouTube in 2010, we never could have imagined that our videos would air on TVs. The distinctions between traditional programming and user-generated content are blurring. Short-form video—which is prevalent on mobile—is even more impactful on TV, as evidenced by YouTube’s recent report on TV watch time exceeding mobile. AI-powered dubbing and translation are also dismantling language barriers, bringing global perspectives, and promoting cross-cultural understanding.

BIGGEST CHALLENGE

The traditional cable aggregation models have been upended by the significant cable disaggregation. Movie theaters are losing popularity, as it becomes much easier to enjoy high-quality visuals and sound at home with the advancements being made in TV technology. However, digital dollars are not converting as anticipated, leading to a new aggregation of content in digital bundles. The challenge is a classic innovator’s dilemma: Sticking with the old while embracing the new and finding the right balance will be crucial until one prevails.

Anil Jain

Global Managing Director | Strategic Consumer Industries, Google Cloud

PREVIOUS ROLE

EVP and General Manager, Media Business, Brightcove

PROUDEST ACHIEVEMENT

I feel very privileged to have been working in streaming media and the broader media & entertainment technology space for a large portion of my career. In that time, the thing I am most proud of is building and developing the best team – both at Google Cloud, and prior to that at Brightcove. Ultimately, people with a combination of talent, hustle, humility and empathy have made my work a joy. Beyond that, I’d say the achievements I am proudest of are architecting the sale of Unicorn Media to Brightcove in 2014, building Brightcove’s global media business to nine figures with customers in 75 countries, and then being recruited to build the M&E vertical at Google Cloud in 2019. To that last point, I believe our team has been incredibly successful in developing Google Cloud into a strong, hyperscale partner for media organizations globally, spanning broadcasters, streamers, sports leagues, publishers, social media platforms and media ISVs.

NEXT BIG THING

For the last two years I’ve taken on a broader remit, spanning all strategic consumer industries for Google Cloud. I expect we will increasingly see the convergence of consumer experiences combining media and games and commerce in different ways, creating new value for consumers while helping enterprises meet their business goals. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is, of course, the most important area of focus for my team and me. In media, we’re working on applying multimodal gen AI and agentic AI to help our customers deliver hyperpersonalized experiences, transform dynamic advertising and further streamline content creation, production and management.

BIGGEST TREND

Unsurprisingly, this also comes back to AI. I think the biggest trend we’re seeing right now is the integration of gen AI to enhance the audience experience in direct-to-consumer platforms, and its use to support and enhance content creation. This includes using multimodal AI to create dynamic, personalized advertising, as well as using conversational AI interfaces to change how users discover and experience content. Thanks to capabilities like chat and search, conversational AI is super easy to use, and I think it’s going to proliferate across the streaming industry pretty quickly.

BIGGEST CHALLENGE

I think we are living in a moment in time where we will see AI potentially reshape entire industries. I don’t think media is immune from this. There is an ever-increasing variety and diversity of audience experiences that are available to consumers across an ever-increasing range of platforms. Scripted, unscripted, shorts, interactive, immersive, dynamically generated, ultra-personalized content… the list goes on and on. This means that every media organization in the world needs to be cognizant of how they’re sourcing or producing content, how they’re packaging it and delivering it, what experiences they’re competing with in the “attention economy” and how they’re truly creating value and differentiation for their consumers. I think this also means that the entire ecosystem supporting media companies must evolve. Traditional media technology ISVs are just starting to modernize and develop cloud-native products, and now have to rethink their roadmaps to incorporate and take advantage of gen and agentic AI.

Barbara Lange

Principal & CEO, Kibo121 Inc.

CONCURRENT AND PREVIOUS ROLES

Co-Founder and Producer, Media Tech Sustainability Summit
Working Group Chair and Volunteer Secretariat, Greening of Streaming
Executive Director, SMPTE (2009–2021)

PROUDEST ACHIEVEMENT

Leading the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) was one of the most rewarding experiences of my career—not only was it my first top leadership role, but I was also entering an industry with which I was unfamiliar and had no connections. I had to learn at an accelerated pace while steering an organization with a long history at the forefront of media technology. I relied on a network of colleagues and board members for support, and that experience shaped my ability to navigate change, build relationships, and lead with confidence.

NEXT BIG THING

I would say that climate change is the ultimate “next big thing”! The media technology industry is still evolving in its understanding of how to operate more sustainably, and there is a growing need for education and collaboration to drive meaningful change. That’s why I’m focused on growing my business by building a strong client base with an emphasis on education and active industry engagement, ensuring the sector remains informed about critical sustainability challenges. Through knowledge-sharing initiatives, speaking engagements, and advisory work—including co-founding the Media Tech Sustainability Series (MTSS)—I help organizations navigate the intersection of media technology and sustainability.

BIGGEST TREND

The biggest trend in media right now is the rapid deployment of AI, which is revolutionizing everything from content-aware encoding to automated localization, content discovery, and congestion-aware content distribution. These advancements are not only enhancing efficiency, but some are also driving reductions in energy consumption. With new regulations on the horizon, organizations are acting by greening their supply chains, rethinking infrastructure, seeking out renewable-powered data centers, and implementing sustainable streaming technologies to minimize their environmental impact.

BIGGEST CHALLENGE

The biggest challenge facing the media tech and streaming industry today is balancing rapid innovation with sustainability while navigating an increasingly complex and fragmented sustainability regulatory landscape. As AI-driven workflows, high-resolution content, and immersive streaming experiences continue to evolve, so does the industry’s energy consumption. The challenge is ensuring these advancements don’t come at an unsustainable environmental cost.

Will Law

Chief Architect, Edge Technology Group, Akamai Technologies

PROUDEST ACHIEVEMENT

What makes me proudest is simply that people value my expertise and opinion. Having colleagues, teammates, and customers who seek engagement is rewarding. I’m lucky enough to work with many engineers, salespeople, and support staff who go out of their way to help, fix, produce, and create things. They work just as hard as I do, but their efforts largely go unrecognized and unrewarded.

NEXT BIG THING

I like where Media Over QUIC (MOQ) is going. It’s the most disruptive change I’ve seen in the past 15 years, which have otherwise been defined by the steady but evolutionary development of HTTP Adaptive Streaming. The opportunity of combining tunable latency, scalable delivery, and pub/sub workflows is an attractive one. It has challenges, but I believe they are solvable engineering problems. I look forward to commercializing MOQ at scale.

BIGGEST TREND

There are many trends: cutting costs and being efficient, inserting ads where they haven’t been inserted before, consolidation among content distributors, live sports driving revenues, commoditization in content distribution. In the next decade, we might look back at these years and say, “The OTT industry was maturing,” but right now, from the inside, it feels competitive, turbulent, and unpredictable.

BIGGEST CHALLENGE

On the distribution side, the biggest challenge is achieving quality at scale and at a sustainable price point for both the purchaser and provider. On the QoE side, it’s device diversity. On the security side, it’s piracy. It’s still expensive to make good content and too easy for people to steal it. On the human side, it’s opening Western levels of OTT QoS to the billions of people in Africa and Asia who don’t have access to it.

Stefan Lederer

CEO & Co-Founder, Bitmovin

PROUDEST ACHIEVEMENT

There are so many Bitmovin achievements I am proud of, so I’ll focus on some of the most recent ones. In January, we brought the entire Bitmovin team together in Klagenfurt, where the company was founded - for an offsite where we laid out our strategy and goals for the year. I am incredibly proud of our talent on the Bitmovin tea, and it was necessary to reward everyone’s hard work with a global gathering. We even found the time to fit in some skiing!

I am also incredibly proud that our Player was also deployed for one of the biggest sporting events in the world. Our Player received 12.7 million impressions and supported 14 million concurrent viewers during the peak of the event.

NEXT BIG THING

Last year, we launched AI Session Interpreter, a feature for Bitmovin Analytics that leverages the power of AI to help users better understand playback sessions, with explanations and recommendations for improving their service. Since then, we’ve also launched AI Contextual Advertising, which helps streaming platforms boost ad engagement and increase revenue. We’ll be announcing a new AI-powered product at NAB.

BIGGEST TREND

We recently released Bitmovin’s 8th Annual Video Developer Report, which provides a crucial snapshot of the trends, opportunities, and challenges shaping the industry. It’s without question that AI is dominating conversations. The report also found that monetization topped the list as the biggest opportunity for the industry over the next 12 months.

BIGGEST CHALLENGE

The last few years have been hugely challenging for the media and entertainment technology industry, and the need for profitability and greater efficiencies are the two things keeping industry leaders up at night. Everyone needs to show a better bottom line. Ads can help the top line, but better cost optimization strategies are needed to get companies where they need to be.

Oliver Lietz

CEO, nanocosmos

PROUDEST ACHIEVEMENT

Our key major achievement is creating nanoStream Cloud, a 100% robust software platform for ultra-low-latency, real-time live streaming for interactive use cases. Based on the patented H5Live streaming and delivery protocol, nanoStream Cloud enables ultra-low-latency playback on any browser and device. With a hybrid approach covering different delivery methods in an easy-to-use player and API, nanoStream embraces existing standards like HLS, WebSockets, and QUIC to deliver the highest quality of service for ultra-low-latency live streaming.

NEXT BIG THING

The seamless integration of Media Over QUIC (MOQ) into our streaming platform, without disrupting existing video workflows.

BIGGEST TREND

The streaming industry is shifting its focus from broadcast-style, lean-back user experiences to a more engaged, interactive experience. Potentially every viewer of live content is also a participant in the event, but interacting with the presenters. This is valid for many use cases, like town hall meetings, education, and training, but especially for monetized segments like live auction, betting, and gaming, where every participant drives revenue to the content provider.

BIGGEST CHALLENGE

As audiences shift to platforms like YouTube and TikTok, a key challenge for the broadcast industry is finding a new sweet spot between traditional “lean-back” experiences and interactive, real-time engagement models that drive monetization. Unlike industries such as iGaming, the broadcast sector often lags in adopting personalized, interactive experiences. The key shift is to move from a technology-first to a use-case-driven mindset, focusing on interactive formats and niche audience experiences to regain relevance and drive revenue growth.

sean mccarthy youtube

Sean McCarthy

Head of OTT Live Engineering, YouTube

CONCURRENT ROLE

Co-Chair, QoE Working Group, SVTA

PREVIOUS ROLE

Director of Product, Paramount

PROUDEST ACHIEVEMENT

Supporting various Super Bowls throughout my career has been the most exciting part of my professional journey. Each offered its own challenge, such as unpredictability in capacity planning, being fully remote due to COVID, or being the first Super Bowl streamed solely behind a paywall. I think large-scale live events are what make the work we do fun and challenging, so being part of these events has been rewarding.

NEXT BIG THING

YouTube TV has seen phenomenal growth in recent years, but a lot of the core ingestion architecture has organically developed over many years of scaling the service. I am currently forming a team responsible for reimagining how linear and discrete live-event content can be ingested and monitored at scale. There are a lot of interesting opportunities ahead when we consider the power of combining a vast library of user-generated content with premium studio content and compelling live events.

BIGGEST TREND

One key trend seems to be a deeper willingness for the industry to adopt technical standards that can be a huge benefit for viewers and developers. It’s great to see the work the SVTA is doing to champion various standards, drive adoption, and showcase the benefits. This will simplify development and deployment of streaming systems so engineers can instead focus on delivering new features, user experiences, and quality improvements.

BIGGEST CHALLENGE

Getting the economics of streaming to parity with linear and traditional cable bundling is the only way the industry can continue to grow and the only way media companies can justify content spending. I’m not sure how this will shake out yet, but I’m sure technology and platform teams have a role to play in making it happen.

MICHELLE MUNSON ELUVIO

Michelle Munson

CEO and Founder, Eluvio

PREVIOUS ROLE

CEO and Co-Founder, Aspera, Inc.

PROUDEST ACHIEVEMENT

In 2024, we streamed the UEFA EURO 2024 (51 live matches) globally with under 3-second end-to-end latency using standard HLS via the Content Fabric, with full encryption and DRM, viewer analytics, and provenance end-to-end to all receivers. Also in 2024, our customer EPCR launched EPCR TV, which we believe is the first direct-to-fan global OTT streaming service controlled by the publisher (EPCR TV) with full stack monetization where the margins for profit are over 75% and the service reaches over 90 countries. The entire experience, including full stack UI, is streamed from the Content Fabric.

NEXT BIG THING

We are now providing ultra-low-latency global distribution of HFR broadcast transport streams with SRT outputs (less than 500 ms globally) using standard internet and the Content Fabric in addition to direct-to-consumer HLS/DASH distribution, all from the same single-source object. This offers dramatic cost savings and consolidation over satellite distribution for broadcasters and allows the OTT direct-to-consumer (D2C) and the direct distribution to affiliates (B2B) to be delivered globally from one feed, with lowest possible latency, authorization, windowing, end-to-end encryption, analytics, and data-driven personalization.

BIGGEST TREND

Cost savings, consolidation, simplicity, and data-driven personalization, all leading to maximum monetization of content. We are at a massive tipping point!

BIGGEST CHALLENGE

For those who are wedded to traditional video stacks and distribution where “data” and “media” are separated, it will be difficult to monetize, differentiate, and stay in business. For content owners who embrace their IP and employ the state-of-the-art hosting, distribution, and scale, the opportunities to deepen audience relationships and expand revenue will be game-changing.

Jose Puga Imaginario AI

Jose Puga

CEO and Co-Founder Imaginario AI

PREVIOUS ROLE

Business Development Director, U.K. and Scandinavia, Warner Bros. Discovery

PROUDEST ACHIEVEMENT

Despite being a small team, we recently won three major industry awards, competing against hundreds of established vendors and incumbents: IABM’s BaM Award 2024 in the Content Management category, IBC’s Best of Show 2024, and IABM’s Best Startup of the Year 2024. On top of that, we have 4x our annual revenue this last year alone, and we just closed our largest enterprise agreement to date with a major streaming service.

NEXT BIG THING

We’re on a mission to empower millions of marketing and production teams to curate, transform, and interact with their content effortlessly, with no technical complexity, no massive budgets—just a few prompts and clicks. To make this happen, we’re developing AI-powered video agents trained and designed for automated workflow orchestration and reasoning. These agents will rely on dozens of tools and systems we have integrated while leveraging our in-house curation and transformation algorithms to streamline the entire process. The goal is to remove friction and make postproduction and marketing as intuitive as possible.

BIGGEST TREND

Personalization in streaming is about to reach an entirely new level. AI-driven content curation is improving, AI personal assistants are getting smarter, and advanced models are powering richer title metadata, better thumbnails, and more engaging auto-trailers. The ultimate goal is to keep viewers engaged by delivering content that matches their tastes, mood, time of day, and even the device they’re using.

BIGGEST CHALLENGE

The media industry isn’t adapting fast enough to two major shifts. First, the creator economy is gaining access to increasingly powerful hardware and software that enable them to produce high-quality content faster and at lower costs. Second, social media, as well as platforms like YouTube, especially via CTV and mobile, is now a dominant force in content distribution, competing directly for consumer attention with streaming services.

Abdul Rehman

CPO, IMAX

CONCURRENT ROLE

Co-Chair of SVTA’s QoE Working Group

PREVIOUS ROLE

Co-Founder, CEO, and CTO, SSIMWAVE

PROUDEST ACHIEVEMENT

I’m particularly proud of founding SSIMWAVE—building on my Ph.D. in vision science—and then aligning with IMAX through acquisition, reflecting our mutual belief in preserving creative intent and delivering premium viewing experiences, wherever the audience may be. Earning a Primetime Emmy for our work in perceived video quality measurement and optimization has been another highlight.

NEXT BIG THING

Right now, I’m focused on bringing premium and differentiated experiences into everyday viewing environments. We’re forging deeper partnerships across content, technology, and platforms to ensure that the immersive magic that people get in an IMAX theater translates seamlessly to living rooms. It’s about refining the entire chain—from content enhancement and optimized encoding to elevated presentations across displays—so audiences never feel they’re compromising on quality, even outside our theaters.

BIGGEST TREND

Live sports streaming is truly going mainstream, with 114 million Americans projected to watch sports online this year. That shift has prompted huge rights deals by tech giants and content providers alike, and it is also fueling innovation, from real-time stats to interactive commentary feeds. At the same time, platforms are tackling “subscription fatigue” by bundling services (like Disney+/Hulu/ESPN+), while pursuing hybrid revenue models that combine advertising with premium subscriptions.

BIGGEST CHALLENGE

Adopting new tech—be it next-gen codecs, ultra-low-latency protocols, or interactive features—remains notoriously complex, especially with so many legacy workflows and devices in play. This is magnified for large-scale live events, where everything from latency to network capacity can make or break the viewer experience. Add in the push for immersive video formats and increasingly fragmented ecosystems, and it becomes apparent why rapid innovation can be difficult. Agility will define who leads the streaming industry in the coming years.

Flavio Ribeiro

Senior Engineering Manager, Live Streaming Technologies, Netflix

PREVIOUS ROLE

Senior Director of Engineering, Video, Paramount

PROUDEST ACHIEVEMENT

Some of my proudest achievements include developing the first HTTP-based live pipeline for Globo in Brazil; contributing to the live digital distribution of Super Bowl LIII and LV for CBS; launching Netflix’s first live event, featuring Chris Rock; and, most recently, delivering the largest live-streaming event in history with the Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson fight.

NEXT BIG THING

Reimagining how broadcast infrastructure is built and relying on the team and resources at Netflix to design a flexible, scalable, and robust architecture to support our global live-streaming efforts for our 300 million-plus members.

BIGGEST TREND

The technology industry is rapidly shifting because of AI, and streaming is no different. Figuring out the different ways that AI fits into improving the product experience for consumers is the most significant trend from my perspective.

BIGGEST CHALLENGE

As live-streaming audiences approach the scale of traditional TV, significant challenges arise. The internet was not built for such massive, simultaneous data transmissions for tens of millions of people tuning in at the same time. Ensuring a seamless viewing experience at high bitrates and resolutions has to be the focus moving forward.

Dom Robinson

CBDO, Norsk

CONCURRENT ROLE

Founder, Greening of Streaming

PROUDEST ACHIEVEMENT

While launching Greening of Streaming and watching it evolve into an industry-changing force under Ben Schwarz’s leadership has been incredibly rewarding, I’m equally proud of my 3 decades of pioneering various aspects of streaming technology. From early live audio streams to building multicast-focused CDNs, hosting the CDN industry’s leading events, and innovating in VSAT IP contribution feeds, I’ve had the privilege of helping shape this industry from its earliest days.

NEXT BIG THING

I’m fully focused on Norsk, where we’re revolutionizing media workflow development. Our recent Studio release represents a fundamental rethinking of how streaming workflows can be built and deployed. This builds on decades of industry experience to create something that we believe will be truly transformative for content creators and broadcasters.

BIGGEST TREND

The industry is finally embracing the need to balance innovation with sustainability. This shift isn’t just about energy efficiency; it’s about creating smarter, more efficient systems that deliver better experiences while reducing environmental impact. We’re seeing this influence in everything from codec development to infrastructure design.

BIGGEST CHALLENGE

As streaming continues to dominate media consumption, we face the dual challenge of meeting escalating quality expectations while managing the environmental and economic costs of delivery. The industry needs to innovate in ways that address both aspects, developing solutions that are not only more efficient but also more sustainable in the long term.

Corey Smith

Deputy General Manager, Media-Enabled Services, TATA Communications

PREVIOUS ROLES

Senior Director, Advanced Production Technologies, CBS Sports
Senior Director for Live Operations, Global Broadcast, Activision Blizzard eSports

PROUDEST ACHIEVEMENT

My career has blessed me with the opportunity to partner with some of the brightest stars in this industry and helped me build what I believe to be one of the best engineering teams in the world. It makes me proud to reflect on those experiences. Working with this team has been critical to several of my biggest engineering accomplishments, including building interactive TV on the Xbox Live platform so millions of people could experience our branching narratives. In addition, we moved eSports production to the cloud with Blizzard and launched a 100% digital cloud-based linear network with CBS Sports.

NEXT BIG THING

It’s hard to say what I’m working on next, because I think the future is wide open.
I’m still in the process of writing that chapter.

BIGGEST TREND

We’re going to see a major shift in collaboration and transport. As traditional linear moves to IP, traditional TV systems will adapt, leading to an evolution in how we move digital linear content at scale.

BIGGEST CHALLENGE

One of the biggest challenges right now is getting out of the boxes we’ve put ourselves in. We’re playing it too safe with our routines instead of making the larger bets that would drive innovation. There is a lot of great tech out there. We need to think differently on how we use these tools and achieve something really great that will be a catalyst for the next generation of storytellers.

Diane Strutner

Founder and CEO, Datazoom

CONCURRENT ROLE

Founding Board Member, Women in Streaming Media

PROUDEST ACHIEVEMENT

I am most proud of the amazing team we’ve assembled at Datazoom. I love that the first comment I get from our customers and partners is how much they love working with our team. It makes it easier to show up every day and remain focused, aligned, and excited about building best-in-class technology to help companies solve their infinitely complex data collection challenges.

NEXT BIG THING

Our next step is being able to implement data collection without touching your code on page and without a developer. One of Datazoom’s goals is to help companies be able to collect the most data with the least amount of effort. We do that pretty well today with data from standard interfaces, but ultimately, every digital experience is built differently and includes custom data that needs collecting too. This new capability removes the dependency on development resources so that data projects can move forward faster, and companies can reap the benefits of better intelligence.

BIGGEST TREND

Publishers have shifted focus to figuring how to maximize profits from ad-supported streaming. Publishers want to better understand ad performance in terms of tracing revenue tracked back to specific users and content in order to understand ROI from investments in content creation, marketing, and technology. Further, to increase CPM rates, they also need to offer more campaign targeting and better measurement and reporting for advertisers. All of these initiatives require a ton of pristinely collected data, and pristine datasets are what AI loves the most.

BIGGEST CHALLENGE

The biggest challenge facing the streaming media industry today is attention fragmentation. This is making it harder to reach profitability amid market saturation, higher content costs, and increasing subscriber fatigue. How do you get someone’s attention, keep it, maintain it, and profit from it better than your competitors? Of course, I believe
the answers can be found with better data!

Jarred Wilichinsky

SVP Global Digital Ad Operations, Paramount

PREVIOUS ROLE

VP, Video Monetization and Operations, CBS Interactive

PROUDEST ACHIEVEMENT

As I’ve worked in streaming video from the very start, one of the things we’ve had to invent was streaming live sports at scale. This started with March Madness on Demand (MMOD) which is now March Madness Live. We had to figure out how to stream the tournament and how to deal with digital ads and digital tracking. I’ve done the same for the Super Bowl since CBS/Paramount started streaming it in 2012. Last year was my fifth Super Bowl, and as we progress in technology, it’s been amazing to see what we’ve been able
to advance and support given the scale of the event.

NEXT BIG THING

The pipes for digital—from scale on live events to metadata on advertising—will help the industry get to the next level. As streaming continues to gain scale, there are lessons from linear TV we must adopt. At the end of the day, the linear TV experience is the North Star. It just works, and the advertising is clean. Digital has a lot of work to do on that front.

BIGGEST TREND

All advertising is performance, and the relationships being formed across a number of partners are empowering Paramount to continue leading in measurement and attribution. There is a tremendous opportunity for streaming video to shine here and shift money away from social and search to CTV.

BIGGEST CHALLENGE

Core foundations on infrastructure for scale, accurate metadata for the ads themselves, and the business of television (distribution agreements) are the biggest challenges.

Monica Williams

SVP, Digital Products and Operations, Content Distribution, NBCUniversal

PROUDEST ACHIEVEMENT

My proudest achievements are being part of many of the big moments in our industry. From launching TVE to launching FAST linear channels, I’ve been at the root of expanding our content portfolio as platforms evolved with sports hubs and AVOD, for example. I’m proud of being able to contribute to the content experience across distribution platforms for some of the biggest cultural moments, improving retention and discovery in the process.

NEXT BIG THING

I’m excited to be a part of the newly established Platform Distribution and Partnerships group, bringing together incredible teams across NBCUniversal to best support our partners. Milan and the NBA are quickly approaching, and I look forward to continuing to innovate to bring the best viewing experience no matter where you’re watching.

BIGGEST TREND

The convergence of linear and digital experiences, bundling and content and ad-supported tiers, as well as AI-driven personalized experiences are some of the biggest trends.

BIGGEST CHALLENGE

Profitability and sustainability—we need to strike the right balance for the business and the consumer, with rising programming costs and consumer fatigue challenging the industry.

ALEX ZAMBELLI

Alex Zambelli

Senior Platform Manager, Dolby Laboratories

PREVIOUS ROLES

Technical Product Manager, Warner Bros. Discovery
Principal Product Manager, Hulu

PROUDEST ACHIEVEMENT

A lot of the projects and technologies I worked on at Microsoft between 2008 and 2012 turned out to have had a profound impact on the streaming industry. Microsoft Smooth Streaming was born out of a skunkworks project we did with NBC Sports for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, and my team spent the next several years building live-streaming solutions for some of the world’s biggest broadcasters. Everything we learned from those projects directly informed the design and development of Smooth Streaming specifications, products, services, player frameworks, tooling, etc. A lot of the stuff we built in those days was quite ahead of its time, like SCTE-35-driven live SSAI, timecode-synchronized multicam streaming, picture-in-picture video, late-binding audio commentary, instant Live2VOD, and cloud-based video editing, just to name a few.

NEXT BIG THING

We’re making some big investments in Dolby Vision this year, perhaps the biggest since it launched over a decade ago, which we expect to even further elevate the quality of Dolby Vision experiences on TVs. We’re also working to simplify Dolby Vision content creation workflows, introduce new ways to create Dolby Vision content, and generally lower the barrier to entry for content creators.

BIGGEST TREND

There’s been a noticeable shift in the past year in the availability of premium live sports on direct-to-consumer streaming services. Just a few years ago, it was next to impossible to watch any major sporting event without a (v)MVPD subscription, and then live events slowly started popping up on DTC services that used to be SVOD-only. 2024 was the year when live sports were suddenly everywhere—on Hulu/Disney+, Peacock, Prime Video, Paramount+, Max, Apple TV+, and, of course, the most anticipated new player in the live-streaming arena: Netflix.

BIGGEST CHALLENGE

The proliferation and fragmentation of streaming device platforms continue to incur high development and support costs for streaming apps. Ours might be the only industry where every app hoping to reach a reasonably sized audience has to be written in half a dozen programming languages for over a dozen different device platforms and app stores and then maintained over multiple generations of each device platform’s hardware models and operating systems. It’s a lot of duplicated effort and a lot of software development overhead, and, when you consider that most app-development platforms offer very little in terms of feature/capability differentiation, a lot of it feels unnecessary and avoidable.

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL OF THE 2025 STREAMING MEDIA ALL–STARS!

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The 2025 Streaming Media All-Stars

Florence Agboma

Anupama Anantharaman

Andy Beach

Sergey Fedorov

Shalini Govil-Pai

Anil Jain

Barbara Lange

Will Law

Stefan Lederer

Oliver Lietz

Sean McCarthy

Michelle Munson

Jose Puga

Abdul Rehman

Flavio Ribeiro

Dom Robinson

Corey Smith

Diane Strutner

Jarred Wilichinsky

Monica Williams

Alex Zambelli

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL OF THE 2025 STREAMING MEDIA ALL–STARS!

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