IBC2026 to explore the future of sports media

In a landmark year for sport, which has seen viewers get closer than ever to the action at the Winter Olympic Games, decentralised production prove itself at the FIFA World Cup, and football leagues across the globe utilising AI, data and tracking technology to deliver ever more immersive content, IBC attendees will hear from those at the forefront of delivering more personalised and engaging viewing experiences. 

Sessions featuring speakers from FIFA, Liga Portugal, OBS, UEFA and Women’s Super League will discuss how live sports production, AI, data, fan engagement, rights and distribution are evolving as audiences expect more seamless and real-time experiences across platforms. 

Conference sessions explore sport’s next chapter 

On 11 September, Oscar Sanchez, Head of Host Broadcast Production at FIFA, and Yiannis Exarchos, CEO of OBS, will take part in a session entitled ‘Live Sports at Scale: Redefining the art of the possible’, exploring the technologies enabling the constant innovation that live sport demands. They will share case studies highlighting the breakthroughs transforming sports, from ultra-low latency streaming and cloud-based production to interactive fan engagement and AI-driven personalisation. 

This is followed by ‘The New Playbook for Sports: AI, data, fans and rights’ with Francisco Antunez, Chief Content Officer, Liga Portugal, and Zarah Al-Kudcy, CRO at Women’s Super League. As the battle for media rights intensifies, with streaming, social, and emerging technologies redefining the value of live sports, the panel will explore the new playbook for the future of sports, where technology, fandom, and media economics collide. 

On 12 September, OBS CTO Sotiris Salamouris will join a panel of tech leaders to discuss how AI is reshaping the business of media, and how machine learning, generative and agentic AI, and data-driven tools can be used to rethink production and distribution, unlock new revenue models, and help organisations to stay competitive in an industry evolving at unprecedented speed. 

The impact of the creator economy on the world of sport will also be discussed, including in a session moderated by media cartographer Evan Shapiro. Here panellists include Tim Haubeil, Channel Director, Sidemen Entertainment, and Will Pithers, Strategic Partner Manager, Sport, Meta.  

Alongside representatives from BBC Studios Digital Brands and Snap Inc, they will ask whether the future of media is all about creators, or whether the mainstream media giants will push back. Discussion will centre around the power shifts defining the future of the creator economy and who risks being left behind as the rules of influence, monetisation, and discovery are rewritten. 

During the afternoon of 12 September, Guy-Laurent Epstein, Executive Director of Marketing at UEFA, will discuss how to unlock growth through innovation while preserving tradition, and what that means for both audiences and broadcasters.   

The final day of the conference (13 September) will see Jose Ignacio Carrillo de Aibornoz, Audiovisual Anti-fraud Manager at La Liga, take part in a panel entitled ‘Security, Authenticity and Provenance: How can we trust the content we have now and in the future?’  

Alongside Mauricio Felix Vasconcellos, Technology Director, Globo, and Toby Scales, CISO Media and Entertainment & Chairperson, Google & GC-SC, they will share strategies to ensure that content stays secure, verified at its source, and traceable throughout its lifecycle. 

AI and automation in the spotlight 

Sports will also be represented in this year’s IBC Accelerator Programme, specifically with AI for Live Sports and Beyond: Rewiring live media via agentic AI orchestration and “meCast”. Involving Champions ITV and Participants Camb.ai, the project explores an AI-native platform that uses agentic AI to automate live media workflows, enabling real-time personalisation, content adaptation, and new monetisation opportunities for sports and other live broadcasts. The objective is to move beyond isolated AI use cases and demonstrate how coordinated, end-to-end workflows can transform live content into dynamic, multi-platform, and personalised experiences. 

Sports is also on the agenda in Content Everywhere in Hall 5. On Saturday CE Stage 1 (5.B28), sponsored by AWS, will host four panels in association with Sportel featuring executives from major sports organisations and CE exhibitors. ‘The New D2C Era: Why sports organisations are becoming media companies’ will explore how sports organisations and rights holders are developing in-house media capabilities, what this means for broadcasters and platform partners, and how direct audience ownership is reshaping sports media models. 

‘Beyond the Live Event: How sports content is expanding fan engagement’ will examine how sports organisations and clubs are extending the lifecycle of their content, building year-round engagement and creating new commercial opportunities around sponsorship, distribution and fan growth. 

‘Personalised Sports Streaming: Building the next viewer experience’ will consider which viewing features are gaining traction, how platforms and rights holders are using audience data to shape product development, and what personalised streaming experiences may look like over the next few years. 

Finally, ‘Where Sports Rights Go Next: Distribution, discovery and revenue’ will explore how sports organisations are structuring distribution strategies across an increasingly fragmented market while protecting the value of premium live content. 

Alongside this, CE Stage 1 will be hosting sports streaming-themed content for the duration of the show with a full programme of panels and demonstrations.  

Sports tech on show across the RAI 

The latest technology to enhance and enable sports and live events will also be on show across the halls of the RAI. Visitors will be able to see the latest in graphics technology from the likes of Chyron and Zero Density, camera innovations from Canon, Sony and Blackmagic, and asset management and collaboration tools from LucidLink and Fonn.  

In addition, Domo Broadcast Systems will be showing its Raptor Talon TXR, a ref-cam system that provides a live, HD perspective from the centre of the action, Fookus will highlight RainAway, a new rain deflector for broadcast cameras, while Broadcast Solutions will be discussing how it delivered two software-defined 16-camera OB trucks to remote production specialists DMC, with the entire signal processing and delivery workflow powered by Grass Valley AMPP software.  

For those looking to discover what’s new and next in sports broadcast, IBC2026 is the place to be.  

Register for IBC2026 now.