John Wastcoat, SVP marketing and alliances, Zixi, looks at how broadcasters can take advantage of new monetisation opportunities emerging from the move to IP with a strategy that embraces openness and interoperability, as well as being flexible enough to accommodate future requirements
By Contributor
Published: July 13, 2023
John Wastcoat, SVP marketing and alliances, Zixi, looks at how broadcasters can take advantage of new monetisation opportunities emerging from the move to IP with a strategy that embraces openness and interoperability, as well as being flexible enough to accommodate future requirements
target=_blank title=Share on LinkedIn class=share-linkedin>
The adoption of IP workflows across the broadcast industry is proving to be a major enabler of innovation and efficiency and is leading to the same rapid phase of digital transformation that we have seen in many other industries to date. The benefits are similar across industries too, an increase in operational flexibility and agility, end-to-end visibility and management, positive bottom-line business impacts, and, specific to broadcasting, the delivery of reliable broadcast quality, live and pre-recorded video content over the public internet.
In short, it has enabled streaming at scale and furthermore allowed workflows to be set up quickly and at a lower cost point not before seen in the industry.
More than that though, it has also enabled a complete rethink of the way that media companies can do business. Content distribution has grown far more complex and dynamic than the legacy one-to-one delivery model. The ecosystem has evolved in a dramatic fashion, and the modern content provider sits at the centre of an interlocking mesh that encompasses traditional broadcasters, service providers, MPVDs and vMPVDs, leagues and rights holders, distribution partners and more.
The net result is that it is not uncommon for large content providers to deliver dozens of customised, resilient and secure channels to many internal and external distribution partners and platforms at the same time. The newly agile IP-based broadcaster has many more monetisation opportunities available to them as a consequence; live events channels, sponsored content feeds, pop-up channels, regional and localised feeds, and a whole new media audience experience available on social and web-based platforms.
Each individual media organisation ecosystem is also connected to another's as well, resulting in a genuine global marketplace for content. This has been accelerated by the demand for content during the pandemic, and, to add a topical note, with the Writers' Strike ongoing in the US it is easy to see that the demand for live events to fill the gaps that will start to appear in the schedule soon is only going to increase.
However, just because the services can be set up quickly and comparatively cheaply does not mean that there are not some gotchas inherent in the new IP architectures. The newly crucial distribution platforms and content aggregation services that play a central role in the new ecosystem present some interesting challenges. Normalising and maintaining high-quality channels access across disparate delivery, formats, protocols, and technical specifications that vary from company to company is a non-trivial task, especially when we are talking about dozens or even hundreds of individual channels.
Each of these must be ingested, normalised, monetised, secured, and prepared for distribution to the audience. The cloud is often critical in this regard, and we have recently seen many of our clients move transcoding to the cloud, from where it can then be pushed out to CDNs for delivery to multiple endpoints. One of the keys to success here is interoperability. Although the Zixi protocol is the market leader with 75 per cent market share, there are over a dozen industry protocols in everyday use in IP-based broadcasting, and the challenge is to maintain high levels of audio-visual quality and user experience while ensuring that additional latency is not introduced into the system - a key consideration for live content and sports in particular.
The numbers involved here are large ones. For example, we work with over 1000 providers offering 20,000 linear and event channels to 1500 distributors and platform endpoints. All in all over 100,000 total channel feeds are delivered. This global explosion of distributed, live linear and event programming has created many new revenue opportunities and gives the new generation of IP-based broadcasters a chance to build audiences at scale.
Post-pandemic these remain turbulent times in the broadcast industry, defined as much by rapid change and consolidation as they are by technical progress. For media organisations to succeed they need to move forward from the rigidity of expensive satellite contracts and embrace a new agility that enables them to swiftly monetise opportunities in the expanding digital first applications
FAST has been one of the major industry success stories of the past year, and along with the growth of connected TVs and the increasing prevalence of live events on OTT platforms, illustrates well how broadcasters have had to adapt to the new normal, and, no doubt, will have to adapt to the next new normal that will appear in six months.
To stay ahead of the game, they need to be on top of compliance validation, content, formatting, stream, localisation, ad load, delivery, strategies, security requirements, and more. All of these represent significant challenges and hurdles for newcomers to the IP-based infrastructure. However, these are not insurmountable, and with foresight and a strategy that embraces openness and interoperability, as well as being flexible enough to accommodate future requirements, they will be well-positioned to take advantage of the new monetisati
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
06/09/2026
June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
When Canada qualified for the FIFA World Cup 2026, OneSoccer knew this wasn'...
04/07/2026
Celebrates company's 80th anniversary
Rhodes have recently revealed that they will be producing a limited run of electric pianos in celebration of their...
04/07/2026
Blackmagic Design Cameras Empower Youth Broadcasting Program
Brie Clayton July 3, 2026
0 Comments
Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K Pro and Blackmagi...
04/07/2026
iZotope Joins Boris FX
Boris Yamnitsky July 3, 2026
0 Comments
iZotope, the team behind RX and Ozone, is joining Boris FX. A letter from founder Boris...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
03/07/2026
New bundle & three Single Packs
Continuing to expand their already sizeable orchestral collection, VSL's latest release introduces three new Single Pack...
03/07/2026
Venue installs new ATC-equipped control room
LSO St Luke's, a unique music venue that also serves as the home of the London Symphony Orchestra, have rec...
03/07/2026
Caden Pearson appointed new Commissioning Editor for NITV
3 July, 2026
Media releases
National Indigenous Television (NITV) has strengthened its commitment...
03/07/2026
1 February 2023
SHARE Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email
Munich, Germany, 1st February 2023: Cinegy GmbH, the premier provider of software technology for digit...
03/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
03/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
03/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
03/07/2026
Death Star
Andy Marken July 2, 2026
0 Comments
Look, I can't get involved. I've got work to do. It's not that I like the Empire; I hate i...
03/07/2026
Berklee's New Visual Identity: Honoring Our History, Building for What's...
03/07/2026
Scripps Research scientists awarded $2M to advance global disease surveillance Two Gates Foundation grants will expand wastewater surveillance and AI-driven dis...
03/07/2026
Joan Pulupa joins Scripps Research faculty to study the organization of DNA in brain cells and its links to neurodegeneration Using smell-sensing neurons and ad...
02/07/2026
Entering her senior year, this hometown girl is paving a career in live sports production gaining experience in replay and audio and as a TD
In the live-sports...
02/07/2026
In-venue and creative video staffers at the professional and collegiate level ha...
02/07/2026
BLAST, a competitive entertainment company focused on esports, has announced more than $133 million in revenue for 2025, representing more than 40% year-over-ye...
02/07/2026
Riedel Communications has announced official SKAARHOJ panel support for SimplyLive production workflows, enabled through the SimplyLive 2.1 release. The integra...
02/07/2026
The Fire Rescue Service of the Czech Republic has deployed LiveU video-over-bond...
02/07/2026
Gravity Media USA has announced the appointment of Brittney Boston as Head of Business Development, effective July 1, 2026. Based in Nashville, Tennessee, Bosto...
02/07/2026
TwelveLabs, a video intelligence company, has announced $100 million in Series B funding co-led by NEA and NAVER Ventures, with participation from Amazon, Radic...
02/07/2026
The Pro Padel League (PPL) has announced a broadcast partnership with USA Sports that will air five PPL championship matches on CNBC during the 2026 season, the...
02/07/2026
LiveLike, a digital fan engagement platform, has announced eight confirmed FIFA ...
02/07/2026
Cobalt Digital has received Future's Best of Show Award, presented by AV Technology at InfoComm 2026, for its blueCORE family of standalone signal processor...
02/07/2026
Synamedia has announced the appointment of Dr. Tzvi Gerstl as Chief Executive Officer. Paul Segre, who has served as CEO for the past six years, will transition...
02/07/2026
The Esports Foundation (EF) and Sony Group Corporation have announced an expanded collaboration for the Esports World Cup 2026 (EWC), taking place in Paris, Fra...
02/07/2026
Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. ( Z') has announced exclusive broadcast and digital rights for the Bundesliga in India for five years, beginning with the...
02/07/2026
An effort uniting News, Sports, Local, and Telemundo, the 50+-camera live produc...
02/07/2026
Zoey Deutch, John Slattery, Ken Marino, Miles Gutierrez-Riley, and Ben Wang appe...
02/07/2026
Stammering, stuttering, strangulated tones
The Crow Hill Company's latest creation promises to be the most original sound set they've produced to d...
02/07/2026
A new era in unmixing and spectral editing
The latest version of Steinberg's spectral audio-editing software has just arrived, building on the strength...
02/07/2026
Aims to simplify additive synthesis
Sine Machine is the debut launch from Melatonin, a Vienna-based developer who have spent the past six years creating wha...
02/07/2026
Products to remain fully active & supported
Following the news of Native Instruments joining the inMusic brand line-up, Academy and Emmy Award-winning visua...
02/07/2026
What you missed!
Last weekend, Saturday 27 June 2026, saw the debut of Sound On Sounds new GearExpo UK event, the largest dedicated pro-audio event to take ...
02/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
02/07/2026
Following the successful launch of its inaugural APAC Mentoring Programme last month, the Rise AV APAC Regional Council will bring the conversation around mento...
02/07/2026
Blackmagic PYXIS 6K Used to Shoot Director Takahisa Zeze's Cry Out
Brie Clayton July 2, 2026
0 Comments
Highly mobile camera supports tense and de...
02/07/2026
Broadcast Solutions acquires BFE, expanding its lead in European broadcast, medi...
02/07/2026
Berklee Alum and Faculty Perform at Boston Public Library's 250th Anniversar...
02/07/2026
Broadcast Solutions GmbH, a leading systems integrator and provider of innovative solutions for the broadcast media industry, is acquiring BFE Studio und Medien...
02/07/2026
Cinegy GmbH, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has extended the ingest facility at leading Brazilian sports company LiveMode, work...
02/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
02/07/2026
Standalone processors acknowledged for the innovation and value they bring to Pro AV
Cobalt Digital, a leading designer and manufacturer of signal processing ...
02/07/2026
Synamedia announced today the appointment of Dr Tzvi Gerstl as Chief Executive Officer. Paul Segre, who has served as CEO for the past six years, will transitio...
John Wastcoat, SVP marketing and alliances, Zixi, looks at how broadcasters can take advantage of new monetisation opportunities emerging from the move to IP with a strategy that embraces openness and interoperability, as well as being flexible enough to accommodate future requirements
