The NAB Show Streaming Summit returns with a clear mandate to cut through the hyperbole of the streaming business and deliver practical answers for an industry under pressure to prove that streaming can be both innovative and sustainable.
The goal? “Provide attendees with real-world information they can practically apply in their business immediately,” said Dan Rayburn, chairman of the Streaming Summit, which takes place Monday and Tuesday, April 20–21.
“Companies are there because they want to solve problems today, not talk about something that might happen 10 years from now.”
The impact of live sports content on the streaming business will be in play, as several panels examine the financial and viewership effects of the increase in sports content on both distributors and consumers.
Live sports viewing on digital platforms has grown by an estimated 8.3% in 2025 compared to 2024, according to Nielsen. Streaming services Netflix, Paramount+, Apple TV+, Disney+ and Prime Video increased their sports programming catalogs by 52% year over year, according to a Nielsen Gracenote report.
While sports content unquestionably drives engagement, Rayburn said, hard data remains scarce. The summit will look to shine a light on viewership metrics during “The Latest Sports Streaming News and Viewership Numbers,” a panel that kicks off Tuesday’s session.
“We have so little data on viewership,” Rayburn said. “None of these companies puts out what percentage of viewers are watching or how it impacts subscriptions.”
What is clear, though, is the growing consumer appetite for live sports programming on digital streaming platforms. “We do know consumers in the U.S. love sports, especially the NFL, and sports drive viewership,” Rayburn said. “Whether or not it drives profitability, we don’t know.”
That question ties directly into one of the summit’s core themes: how to price, package and monetize content. Rayburn calls it one of the biggest business-side issues heading into the event. Bundling strategies, whether for live sports, on-demand libraries or hybrid offerings, are evolving rapidly. The summit will also examine how streaming intersects with traditional distribution, particularly as linear TV continues to evolve.
Streaming Summit sessions will include:
- “Fireside Keynote: Robert Schildhouse, President, BritBox”
- “Charter’s Streaming Playbook: Distributed Delivery, Reliable Scale and Bundling Growth”
- “Inside Comcast’s Multiview Revolution: How Fan Behavior Turned a Cloud Innovation Into a New Sports Viewing Experience”
- “Digital Video at Scale: Insights Into Building the Fox One Video Streaming Platform”
For the full, updated Streaming Summit schedule, visit its page on NAB Show’s website.
“The business looks different year to year,” Rayburn said, pointing to recent subscriber gains reported by major cable providers and growing bundling of streaming and linear services by providers such as Charter Communications’ Spectrum.
Rayburn highlighted the evolution of multiview offerings as one of the fastest-growing developments in the space, adding that what was once experimental has become mainstream. One summit panel will examine Comcast’s innovations in the multiview arena.
The Streaming Summit will also highlight streaming innovations and product launches from some of the biggest brands in television. BritBox President Robert Schildhouse will offer his perspective on navigating a competitive global subscription market through focused brand identity.
The company in September launched BritBox Premier, an annual subscription tier offering enhanced features, including 4K streaming, downloads, early access to new releases and simultaneous streams. Schildhouse recently told Vulture that the signup numbers for BritBox Premier “are already significantly exceeding our expectations,” with current BritBox annual subscribers making up about half of new Premier customers.
“The market has already validated to us that we’re on to something,” he said in the interview.
Mayur Srinivasan, senior vice president, digital platforms at Fox, will talk about last year’s launch of direct-to-consumer service Fox One and what it took to transform a vast content library into a new streaming product.
“Fox had never had a direct-to-consumer streaming service, but they always had a lot of content,” Rayburn said. “We’ll look at what it took to put that content into a brand-new service and all the technical pieces that go into that.”
According to Rayburn, the summit will explore the factors that will allow companies to remain relevant in an ever-evolving business. “The speakers will address real-world issues, discussing the challenges you face today from both a technical and a business perspective.”
Companies speaking at the summit include Warner Bros. Discovery, Fox, YouTube, BBC, Charter, Comcast, Amazon, NBCUniversal, Paramount and Roku, with 75 speakers represented.
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