For the better part of a decade, there's a word the broadcast industry has been using to describe the move from traditional to software-defined production.

That word is transition.

But transition implies a journey from one state to another. What broadcasters are really living through is more permanent than that. They're not crossing a bridge. They're building one while keeping traffic moving on both sides.

The hybrid reality that most production operations face today isn't a phase. It's the terrain they're operating in. And the industry is only beginning to work out what that really demands.

Two Worlds, One Team
As IP and cloud-based production matured, the assumption in most technology strategies was that organizations would eventually retire traditional hardware workflows. But that hasn’t happened. Client commitments, capital cycles, rights agreements and the genuine complexity of software-defined environments have all kept legacy infrastructure in service.

This means that production teams manage both at the same time, and engineers who once worked in a single signal chain are now expected to be fluent across various architectures. That pressure isn’t always obvious, until something goes wrong.

Client expectations are moving in different directions at the same time. Some rights holders won't compromise on premium quality. Others are under real pressure to deliver faster and cheaper, sometimes for the same content through a different window. In some cases both demands land in the same contract.

The Cost of Keeping Both Engines Running
Operating in a hybrid environment is costly in ways that aren’t always easy to quantify. Maintaining two categories of infrastructure, training staff on both and building workflows that flex between them: the obvious costs are significant. But the subtler ones are too.

Every infrastructure decision now has a strategic dimension to it. Whether to extend the life of traditional kit, push harder toward software workflows and take on the short-term risk that comes with it, or route projects through different models depending on the brief, none of it is straightforward and each path brings its own complexity.

None of these are easy calls. They involve trade-offs between cost, speed, quality and flexibility. The right answer shifts with each client and project. The teams that navigate this skillfully have stopped looking for one cohesive answer and instead relied on the judgment to make the call differently each time.

Remote and Cloud: Real Gains and Real Limits
Remote and cloud production have proven their worth. The ability to draw on the right talent wherever they are, scale infrastructure around event demand and cut crew travel has truly changed how operations plan and staff major events.

But the limits of working fully distributed are also getting clearer. Some productions benefit greatly when people are in the same room, where decisions need to be made quickly and creative judgment is built through proximity. The best hybrid operations aren’t choosing between remote and on-site. They’re developing the discipline to recognize which approach will work best for any given brief, and then investing in the infrastructure to support both.

Flexibility: The Baseline Requirement
The most important shift in thinking may be that flexibility isn’t something to sell anymore. Clients expect workflows that flex to last-minute changes, support teams who are spread across different technical environments and scale without everything falling apart.

That’s a structural challenge. Not a technology challenge. The tools exist, but what production operations are still building is the confidence to lean on them and the organizational design to deploy them well.

The broadcasters and service providers who define the next phase of this industry will not be those who complete the move to software-defined production fastest. They will be those who build the judgment and workflows to operate effectively in a world where both models coexist, indefinitely, at the same time.

Hybrid production isn’t a problem to be solved. It’s the operating environment. The sooner the industry plans accordingly, the better.

WASHINGTON—Following failed retransmission consent negotiations that led to Deltavision Media's WSYT Fox affiliate in Syracuse N.Y. being dropped from Verizon’s programming lineup, the pay TV-backed group, American Television Alliance (ATVA), has accused Deltavision of demanding an “exorbitant rate hike – one of the steepest Verizon has ever seen” in the talks.

As previously reported, the contract between the two companies expired in June. They then agreed to extend talks until July 30 but no agreement was reached and the Deltavision stations are currently blacked out in the market on Verizon.

In a statement Verizon said that “our contract with Deltavision Media, LLC expired on July 30, 2026. Deltavision owns and operates WSYT in Syracuse, NY (FOX, MyNetwork, COZI TV, Dabl channels). We haven’t reached a new agreement with Deltavision, so we temporarily lack the rights to broadcast their channels. We share your frustration. We are working hard to reach a fair deal, but Deltavision is demanding extreme price increases that would unreasonably raise your bill…We appreciate your patience and support as we continue to negotiate reasonable pricing on your behalf, and hope Deltavision will restore its channels to our lineup soon.”

TV Tech has reached out to WSYT and will add their response when we receive one.

“Deltavision Media has chosen a stunning debut in the broadcasting business: benching nearly 20,000 consumers to demand an unprecedented retrans rate hike,” said ATVA spokesman Hunter Wilson. “This is exactly the kind of marketplace abuse that underscores the need for retransmission consent reform. Consumers should not be used as leverage chips in fee disputes – especially when the stakes include access to critical local news coverage.”

ATVA has been aggressively lobbying for changes in the rules governing retransmission consent negotiations and has also been a vocal opponent of changing ownership caps for station groups, arguing that larger more powerful broadcast station groups would force consumers to pay more for programming.

BOULDER, Co.—Public Media Venture Group (PMVG), a nonprofit business development consortium, has received a $400,000 grant from The Tow Foundation to accelerate its work building sustainable business and technology models that help local public stations modernize operations, reduce costs, and strengthen their impact nationwide.

The two-year general operating grant will support PMVG’s efforts to sustain the public media system at a time of significant disruption across the sector, including the loss of federal funding, aging technical infrastructure, and growing pressure to compete in an increasingly digital-first media environment.

PMVG is working to address these challenges by helping stations modernize their operations and adopt technologies that expand their reach beyond traditional broadcasting, including streaming, digital audience engagement, cloud-based infrastructure, shared engineering services, and other emerging technologies.

“Public media’s future depends on its ability to evolve,” said PMVG CEO Marc Hand. “The Tow Foundation’s generous support allows us to accelerate the development of practical, scalable, cost-effective solutions that help stations preserve local broadcast service and build long-term sustainability.”

PMVG reported several examples of how those efforts are already having an impact. In Eureka, California, PMVG is working with KEET-TV as part of a stabilization effort to reduce capital and equipment costs, lower ongoing operational expenses, and help preserve the station’s local service in a financially vulnerable market.

Another component of PMVG’s broader efforts is TechBundle, a coordinated suite of technology and operational services designed to help public media stations reduce costs, strengthen operations, and connect with new audiences across platforms.

The Tow Foundation was established in 1988 by Leonard and Claire Tow as a way to give back to the communities that shaped them. Based in New Canaan, Connecticut, the Foundation supports visionary leaders and effective organizations in Connecticut and New York, advancing opportunity and well-being in five impact areas: arts and culture, civic engagement, higher education, justice, and medicine and public health.

Public Media Venture Group is a nonprofit business development consortium of leading public media organizations working to preserve and strengthen public media. PMVG member organizations own and operate over 100 public stations that collectively reach 250 million people.

HACKENSACK, N.J.—LiveU said it achieved historic performance records during six weeks of 2026 FIFA World Cup coverage, with deployment of 1,700 portable IP transmitter units, 31,000 live transmissions and 17,000 broadcast hours for its customers in 45 countries, representing 695 TB of data.

Broadcasters, production houses, football federations and digital content creators, including independent creators and IRL streamers covering the championship for their own channels, turned to LiveU to support their coverage.

Coverage spanned prematch briefings, official training sessions, press conferences, in-stadium editorial positions, fan zones, team hotels and IRL creator streams from city centers and public viewing areas. Broadcasters also deployed LiveU technology across additional camera positions to capture unilateral feeds for richer multi-angle coverage. The range reflects a fundamental shift in how broadcasters of all sizes and independent creators are now building distributed, IP-first workflows around a major tournament, the company said.

LiveU’s LU800 multicamera field unit and intelligent production unit, LU900Q—both of which are powered by the smart routing capabilities of LiveU IQ (LIQ) AI-driven connectivity technology—anchored multisite broadcasts. The combination enabled ultra-low-latency, 4K-ready content to be delivered directly to millions of viewers worldwide.

“The sheer scale of this cross-border deployment reflects a joint collaboration with our global customers and partners to push the boundaries of live sports productions,” said Gideon Gilboa, chief business officer and general manager of the Americas at LiveU.

“We didn’t just supply equipment; we worked in partnership with our customers in advance to design and refine workflows to meet their operational needs and budgets,” Gilboa said. “By shifting heavy infrastructure to the cloud, our customers could expand their tournament footprint, capture more angles and maximize ROI without compromising on broadcast quality. LIQ and the LU900Q both demonstrated LiveU’s focus on robust, high-performance field connectivity, helping broadcasters maintain reliable live transmissions in demanding sports production environments.”

Field coverage of the tournament relied predominantly on LiveU’s LU800 portable field units running LiveU IQ (LIQ), LiveU’s intelligent connectivity solution that analyzes real-time and historical network data to optimize every transmission. LIQ dynamically prioritized and load-balanced cellular connections through predictive network analysis, enabling critical resiliency in crowded stadium environments.

On average, broadcasters leveraging LIQ during the tournament achieved bit rates up to 35% higher than average and maintained near-zero packet loss, even within those highly congested environments.

LIQ's performance in the U.S. market made a measurable difference for broadcasters operating across multiple cities and time zones. LIQ was complemented by LiveU Mobile Data, LiveU’s cellular connectivity offering, connecting teams to multiple networks. All LiveU rental units came with Mobile Data as default, saving international teams from the hassle of sourcing local SIM cards in the U.S.

“When it was announced that Boston would be a host city, we knew this event would be massive," said Adam Liberatore, chief photographer at WFXT, Boston’s Fox affiliate. “As rightsholders, we immediately planned for a collaboration with LiveU to assist with giving us the bandwidth necessary to put on a flawless in-stadium newscast. The LU800 helped turn this platform into a mobile newsroom with one unit handling up to four video sources. The LU800 and LIQ connectivity helped our lean production crew make this global event memorable for our viewers.”

Field transmission was only half of the story. Broadcasters relied heavily on the LiveU EcoSystem, a unified suite of cloud-native tools spanning the entire live production workflow, to execute sophisticated REMI workflows without sending massive, expensive production trucks to every venue.

LiveU Central gave operations teams a single point of visibility across every unit in the field. LiveU Ingest automated file-based recording and metadata tagging for rapid highlights and LiveU Nexus handled ingest, conversion and distribution of live streams from traditional encoders to social media. LiveU Matrix routed live camera feeds to global newsrooms, production hubs and distribution partners.

With deployments built around remote production, there was less of a need to have massive crews on-site. LiveU estimated the number of traveling crew members was reduced by around 40%.

LiveU’s team was on the ground in all key tournament locations. When urgent deployments arose, they hand-delivered equipment directly to stadiums and production hubs to keep broadcasters on-air.

LiveU's partnership with One Media was central to managing that complexity in Mexico, where close to 200 systems were coordinated, staged and tested more than a month before the opening match.

“The 2026 World Football Championship was a true proving ground for modern sports broadcasting, demanding unmatched logistical agility and flawless network resilience,” Gilboa said. “By combining our purpose-built hardware, open architecture and global footprint with AI-driven cloud orchestration, we showed that broadcasters don’t need a heavy physical presence on-site to deliver world-class coverage. We're already deep in preparations for 2030. Spain, Portugal, Morocco and Uruguay present an even greater logistical challenge, and we intend to meet it the same way.”

More information is available on the company’s website.

SHANGHAI, China—Brazil’s advanced television broadcast initiative has reached a critical deployment milestone with industry leaders reviewing the full commercial supply chain readiness of Advanced HDR by Technicolor to support the country's TV 3.0 rollout.

Representatives from SET, Brazil's national broadcast engineering society, and Mirakulo, whose AstroTV NEXT middleware represents the first commercial DTV+ implementation to incorporate Advanced HDR by Technicolor, evaluated demonstrations of certified devices, integrated chipsets and commercially available televisions and set-top boxes already incorporating the Advanced HDR by Technicolor solution.

The demonstrations provided firsthand insight into the evolution of the ecosystem that will support Brazil's TV 3.0 implementation. This review and confirmation of supply chain readiness clear a key barrier that has historically separated technical standardization from scalable market deployment in next-generation broadcast transitions.

The representatives from Philips, SET and Mirakulo discussed the growing maturity of the Advanced HDR by Technicolor ecosystem following a visit to the Advanced HDR by Technicolor Certification Laboratory run by Philips in Shanghai, reinforcing its readiness to support rapid deployment in Brazil’s TV 3.0 market.

As Brazil TV 3.0 moves from the research and development phase to implementation, a robust supply chain means network operators can move forward with HDR delivery plans without waiting for supply chain components to mature. Device manufacturers gain access to a certified, interoperable reference chain that reduces integration costs and compresses time-to-market. Consumers stand to benefit from broadcast-quality HDR picture delivery through over-the-air transmission, independent of broadband infrastructure availability.

Advanced HDR by Technicolor has already cleared technical benchmarks in Brazil's TV 2.5 and TV 3.0 standard evaluations and completed trials with TV Globo, the country's dominant broadcast network.

During the visit, the Brazilian delegation viewed a demonstration featuring the end-to-end ecosystem that is supporting Advanced HDR by Technicolor. Elements of the demonstration included commercially available devices, chipset solutions and integration workflows.

Multiple televisions and set-top boxes were observed integrating the technology to provide clear validation of real-world deployment status. The demonstrations illustrated the availability of key ecosystem components required for large-scale deployment.

The delegation included Paulo Henrique Castro, president of SET; Luana Bravo, general director of SET; Leo Carbonell, head of Business at SET; and Osamu Yamaguchi, new business director at Mirakulo.

Advanced HDR by Technicolor continues to expand in ATSC 3.0 deployments in North America, where it supports efficient HDR delivery alongside existing broadcast infrastructures. For the Brazilian market, Philips highlighted the use of Advanced HDR by Technicolor within TV 2.5 and TV 3.0 standards, enabling high-quality HDR experiences optimized for next-generation broadcast environments.

Representatives from SET and Mirakulo noted that the technological readiness of the ecosystem, including chipsets, devices and supporting industry partners, represents an important step in the evolution of Brazil's TV 3.0 environment and contributes to the continued development of the TV 3.0 ecosystem in Brazil.

Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS) has revealed some of its plans for the next Summer Olympics, taking place in Los Angeles in 2028.

At a meeting of rights holders last week, OBS said it intends to provide approximately 3,800 to 4,000 hours of competition and Ceremonies coverage.

The host broadcaster added it is expanding its use of first-person-view (FPV) drones, real-time 360° and stroboscopic replays, point-of-view (POV) cameras, microphones on officials and coaches, dynamic graphics, back-of-house access and enhanced digital content at LA28.

The broadcast ecosystem will be designed around virtualization, cloud-based workflows and AI-ready infrastructure, said OBS, to deliver increased flexibility, resilience and operational efficiency across broadcast operations.

Plans include expanded cloud services, AI-assisted production workflows, enhanced digital content delivery and new approaches to content distribution.

Work on the IBC fit-out will begin in early 2027, added OBS.

This article originally appeared on TV Tech sister brand TVBEurope.

LYNDONVILLE, N.Y.—Digital Alert Systems is reporting that its DASDEC Emergency Alert System (EAS) platform supports the new password requirements recently adopted by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), enabling users to comply with the new rules through capabilities that are built into the system.

The announcement follows the Federal Communications Commission’s adoption of FCC 26-38, which establishes new cybersecurity requirements for Emergency Alert System (EAS) participants, including a requirement that passwords be at least 15 characters long. All current versions of DASDEC software already support passwords up to 16 characters, enabling users to meet the new requirement immediately without installing software updates or waiting for new password-management features.

FCC 26-38, the Report and Order and Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking establishing the new cybersecurity password requirements, requires EAS participants to comply within 60 days after publication in the Federal Register. While the publication date has not yet been announced, DASDEC customers are already equipped to meet the new password requirement using capabilities built into current versions of the platform.

“Cybersecurity has been a core design principle for DASDEC for many years, not merely a response to changing regulations,” said a spokesperson for Digital Alert Systems. “The FCC’s new password requirement aligns with established security best practices that our customers have already been able to implement. Our goal has always been to provide broadcasters, cable operators and other EAS participants with practical security tools that help protect these critical public safety systems.”

Beyond password length, DASDEC incorporates multiple layers of security designed to strengthen access control. The platform requires users to replace the factory-default password upon first sign-in, blocks common and prohibited passwords, prevents password reuse and warns administrators when passwords are more than 180 days old. DASDEC also locks accounts after multiple unsuccessful login attempts, helping slow automated brute-force attacks.

For organizations managing multiple facilities or EAS devices, DASDEC supports enterprise Single Sign-On (SSO) integrations. SSO enables administrators to manage user authentication centrally, assign role-based permissions, monitor access and quickly revoke credentials across connected systems when personnel changes occur. By reducing the need to maintain separate passwords for individual devices, SSO also encourages the use of stronger, more complex credentials throughout the organization.

More information is available on the company’s website.

IRVING, Texas—Nexstar Media Group has announced the successful launch of ATSC 3.0/NextGen TV in the Cleveland, Ohio, television market. The deployment means that the next generation broadcast standard is now deployed across all of the top 25 U.S. designated market areas (DMAs).

As the largest remaining market yet to deploy ATSC 3.0, Cleveland had been unable to launch due to structural limitations in available broadcast spectrum and station participation.

However, following Nexstar’s 2024 acquisition of WBNX-TV, Nexstar contributed the station’s spectrum to the ATSC 3.0 effort, enabling the entire Cleveland market to make the transition.

For the launch, WBNX-TV (Nexstar-CW) is serving as the host station, with WJW-TV (Nexstar-FOX), WEWS-TV (Scripps-ABC), WOIO-TV (Gray-CBS) and WKYC-TV (TEGNA-NBC) partnering to bring ATSC 3.0 service to the market.

“Completing this ATSC 3.0 transition represents a significant milestone in the nationwide transformation of broadcast capabilities and is the first step to bringing a host of benefits to consumers in the Cleveland DMA,” said Brett Jenkins, Nexstar’s CTO and digital officer. "NextGen TV service also opens up opportunities for EdgeBeam Wireless, our joint venture, to offer its services to customers looking to take advantage of the benefits of data delivery over a broadcast system for such applications as high-precision positioning, digital signage, and enhancing public safety.”

In announcing the move, Nexstar said the launch of 3.0 broadcasts is “a clear example of how strategic industry consolidation can accelerate innovation and deliver meaningful benefits to consumers.”

The NAB applauded the launch. "NextGen TV is more than a technology upgrade,” said NAB President and CEO Curtis LeGeyt. “It is a pathway to a stronger, more resilient local broadcasting system that enhances public safety, supports local journalism and ensures communities have access to trusted, free, over-the-air service when it matters most."

The NAB also stressed that in a period when more content is moving behind paywalls and onto Big Tech platforms, NextGen TV helps ensure local broadcasters can continue serving every community, free and over the air, including enhancing access to marquee live sports and other major local events that bring communities together.

"Now, policymakers must match that momentum by modernizing outdated regulations and establishing a clear, forward-looking transition plan so broadcasters can continue delivering innovative, free local television for their communities," the NAB added.

Banana Ball TV (BTV), the production arm for the Savannah Bananas baseball team, has installed three Calrec 36-fader Argo M consoles, three Type R systems, and True Control 2.0, to expand remote production capabilities.

The Savannah Banana exhibition baseball team tours packed baseball stadiums worldwide, using altered baseball rules that favor trick plays, all within a two-hour limit to increase audience engagement. Think Harlem Globetrotters, but for baseball.

This year, the team introduced the “Banana Ball Championship League,” which adds even more opponents and an even busier broadcast schedule covering games across 75 stadiums and 45 states.

Spread across two main control rooms at BTV's remote facility in Savannah, and with flypacks positioned out in the field, Calrec’s flexible audio network sits at the core of a significant expansion of BTV's REMI capabilities. Designed to extend capacity and accommodate future growth, it makes BTV's workflows much more fluid, according to Savannah Bananas’ Head of Technology Matt Webster.

“We’ve seen lots of expansion for the 2026 World Tour season, and part of re-building our facilities from 2025 to 2026 was to expand capabilities and increase overall efficiency,” Webster said. “The Calrec consoles are all being used to support REMI broadcasts; we have Argo consoles in our main control rooms and we deploy the Type R frame in the field in our mobile units and flypacks.

“This gives us a combination of analog, embedded SDI, MADI and Dante, and all the audio is given a first pass mix and level set before it is embedded in our video transmission system back to Savannah. We ensure lip sync is correct on-site, so when it comes back into the control rooms, we just focus on mixing the broadcast as if we are doing it at our home stadium.

“We also have remote control of the consoles via the Calrec Assist GUI for changing things on the fly. The most challenging part of any audio console is how you have to interact with it if you are not standing directly in front of it, but nothing beats having access to a web page; it means we can access any console from inside the stadium to make changes, and I can also work remotely to support all our shows from home and fix issues that arise quickly. It is a game-changer for sure.”

Access to Calrec’s True Control 2.0 protocol, which provides even greater levels of remote control and unparalleled flexibility to scale up when required, gives scope for BTV to further develop its workflows. Webster says he plans to introduce it more as the season progresses.

It demands an audio workflow as dynamic as the Savannah Bananas’ antics on the field, Webster added.

“We want the technology to outpace production,” he said. “It’s all about scale and simplicity, and Calrec allowed us to achieve this in our second generation of REMI workflows. With broadcast consoles like the Argo and Type R, our workflow has dramatically improved. The Calrec equipment allows us to truly make sure we have the best audio – sweetened and observed.

“It brings us a level of consistency that we have been looking for; it just works, and it is simple enough for any audio operator to just jump in and start driving. We have many local audio mixers in the Savannah area that have an entertainment and film focus rather than a broadcast one, but the Calrec consoles have been extremely easy for them not only to make the transition, but to excel.

“It means all our production staff are able to move from room-to-room and from site-to-site and not have any compromises or workflow limitations.”

PHOENIX, Ariz.—Silicondust has unveiled the release of the latest HDHomeRun app supporting the ability to view television, emergency alert notifications and recordings even if there is an internet outage.

Recently filings in the FCC’s GN Docket No. 16-142, “Authorizing the Permissive Use of the ‘Next Generation’ Broadcast Television Standard,” have seen several parties point out that viewers should continue receiving broadcast television, including Emergency Alert System (EAS) messages, when broadband connectivity is unavailable, said company president and CTO Nick Kelsey.

“We agree that viewers must be able to tune and view broadcast-delivered television channels during an internet outage,” he said.

Silicondust suggested to the commission that broadcasters temporarily transmit broadcast channels without DRM encryption while the ecosystem develops and deploys a broadly compatible solution that preserves television reception during internet outages.

“Silicondust demonstrates that broadcast television can continue to operate during an internet outage using the HDHomeRun video gateway architecture. Our July 9, 2026, FCC Ex Parte filing indicates that the remaining limitation is confined to DRM encrypted channels. That limitation does not affect ATSC 1.0 channels or ATSC 3.0 channels that are not DRM encrypted,” said Kelsey. “No deployable A3SA-approved approach presently enables DRM encrypted channels to be made available to popular player devices with the same Internet-outage compatibility as unencrypted broadcast channels.”

The latest HDHomeRun app updates are available for:

• Roku devices and Roku-based TVs
• Android TV devices and Android based TVs
• Fire TV devices and Fire TV based TVs
• Apple TV devices
• Google TV devices
• XBox consoles
• Apple iPhones and iPads
• Android phones and tablets
• Mac and Windows computers

ATSC 1.0 channels and ATSC 3.0 channels that are delivered via broadcast can be viewed in the event of an internet outage.

The company’s ex parte filing is available online.

The app download is available on the company’s website.

President Trump criticized ABC and NBC for their decisions not to air his primetime address about his claims of “election fraud” live on Thursday night, saying their actions “should mean a revocation of their licenses.”

When the president announced the subject of his speech would be about “election integrity,” earlier this week, media outlets debated about how to cover it. It was expected that he would dredge up old conspiracy theories that have long been debunked and to which the majority of Americans don't share his conclusion that the 2020 election was "stolen."

Much of what he said last night did follow that pattern along with the announcement that the administration would release new unclassified material that would implicate that China meddled in the 2020 election, which he lost to Joe Biden.

Cable news channels decided their own path of coverage, with CNN fact-checking Trump’s speech in real-time, while MS NOW ran regular programming but broke in with analysis when warranted. Fox News, stung by a 2022 defamation lawsuit that forced the network to fork over $787.5 million to Dominion Voting Systems, reminded its viewers that it has seen no proof to Trump’s claims.

“Fox News has not seen that evidence yet and is not in a position to evaluate the accuracy of the president’s statement and claims at this time,” a reporter said during the speech.

Tony Dokoupil, news anchor for CBS News, which has come under considerable criticism from Trump’s opponents, was candid in his response to the speech.

“This is a vitally, vitally important topic, and the president has a terrible track record on it,” he said.

While both NBC and ABC chose not to air the speech live, they did break in when appropriate and held post-speech analysis special reports.

The networks’ decisions on whether to air the speech are not unprecedented. Networks have declined to cover certain speeches by Trump’s predecessors as well.

This didn’t mollify the president, though.

‘“They and others in the media are part of a plot,” he claimed. “They want to continue this fraud for whatever reason. They want to keep it going. They want to protect the radical left. They can’t have a great country. And that’s true. You can’t have a great country without free and fair elections.”

FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez criticized the president for his threats.

"It is ridiculous to call for broadcasters to lose their license simply for making the same editorial decisions they've made under presidents of both parties," Gomez said. "Those editorial decisions are protected by the First Amendment, and the FCC has no authority to punish a station for refusing to air a blatantly political speech. This is a naked attempt to bully broadcasters, and the FCC should have no part in it."

WALTHAM, Mass. and PHILADELPHIA—Zixi and Comcast Technology Solutions (CTS) today announced a strategic new integration to deliver C-band replacement solutions for linear broadcasters and content distributors. The collaboration brings together the end-to-end video management capabilities provided by Comcast Media360 with the Zixi Software Platform to give operators a direct migration path from C-band satellite to IP-based content distribution, they said.

With the C-band satellite transition underway, programmers and distributors are exploring solutions to migrate linear workflows to IP while maintaining the kind of reliability, rights compliance, and affiliate distribution control that C-band has historically provided. At the core of the joint Zixi and CTS solution is a technical integration between the Zixi Software Platform and Comcast Media360, which provides customers with a 24/7 managed service backed by the proven reliability and scale of Comcast Technology Solutions.

“The C-band transition is not a distant deadline for our customers. It is a decision they are making now. Working with Comcast Technology Solutions means that we can offer broadcasters a solution that does not ask them to trade rights compliance and reliability for IP flexibility. The integration between the Zixi Software Platform and Comcast Media360 is the kind of joint engineering that makes a real operational difference," said Marc Aldrich, CEO, Zixi.

"Broadcasters are looking for ways to operate their linear channels more efficiently while continuing to scale distribution as part of their C-band transition efforts,” said Bart Spriester, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Streaming, Broadcast, and Advertising at Comcast Technology Solutions. “Comcast Media360 helps make that possible across broadcast and IP workflows and, together with Zixi, delivers a satellite replacement option that gives programmers and distributors a manageable path to IP and unlocks new monetization opportunities."

Notably, CTS’ linear rights management normalizes rights metadata using the SCTE 224 standard, enabling content providers to manage alternate content delivery, ad insertion windows, and audience-based content restrictions across broadcast and streaming destinations. Zixi ZEN Master orchestrates the live video workflow across cloud or hybrid network environments, with native support for SCTE-35/224 signaling, blackout enforcement, and schedule-driven source switching.

Together, the integrated platforms can provide broadcasters a single, intelligent, rights-aware distribution chain that combines signal orchestration, affiliate distribution, and rights enforcement enabling new monetization and distribution capability, while removing the dependency on satellite infrastructure and maintaining compliance and control.

As C-band satellite capacity is reclaimed and transition deadlines approach, the need for end-to-end IP workflows has become a near-term business imperative for broadcasters, the companies said, adding that the combined Zixi and CTS solution gives broadcasters a migration path that preserves existing investment in rights management infrastructure while moving to the flexibility and cost structure that IP distribution offers and simplifying the path from ingest to monetization.

WASHINGTON—ATSC has completed a major revision of its A/85 Recommended Practice: Techniques for Establishing and Maintaining Audio Loudness for Digital Television, marking the first comprehensive update to the industry reference since 2013.

ATSC said the revision, which expands the guidance beyond traditional television to address today's hybrid broadcast and streaming environment, is designed to help media organizations comply with loudness requirements and maintain a high quality viewing experience as they continue to transition toward IP-based and hybrid broadcast-broadband delivery models.

"As audiences increasingly consume content across both over-the-air and streaming platforms, maintaining a consistent listening experience has become more important than ever," said Madeleine Noland, president of ATSC. "This update to A/85 gives the industry practical, contemporary guidance that reflects today's production and distribution workflows while preserving the high-quality viewer experience broadcasters have worked to deliver for many years."

The newly revised ATSC Recommended Practice modernizes the document with numerous technical clarifications and introduces two important new annexes:

• Guidance for establishing and maintaining consistent loudness for streaming media services using both metadata-based and non-metadata-based audio codecs.
• A new Loudness and True Peak Quick Reference designed to simplify implementation for engineers and content providers.

More specifically, the revised A/85 Recommended Practice provides recommendations for audio measurement, monitoring, production, metadata management, dynamic-range control and loudness management throughout the content creation and delivery chain. By incorporating lessons learned from more than a decade of implementation, as well as addressing emerging streaming workflows, the document helps ensure consistent audio presentation regardless of how viewers access content, the ATSC reported.

The revised A/85 Recommended Practice can be downloaded here: https://www.atsc.org/atsc-documents/type/1-0-recommended-practices/

As broadcasters await a decision from the FCC to shut down the current ATSC 1.0 broadcast format, the industry’s leading lobbyist is reiterating its support for ATSC 3.0, (aka “NextGen TV”).

Since last October, when the FCC voted on a proposal to determine a date when to sunset ATSC 1.0, debate has swirled around the timing of the shutdown and what consumer protections will be in place to ensure viewers don’t lose access to free over the air broadcasting. The commission is expected to announce a final decision by the end of 2026.

The NAB, which has promoted NextGen TV as a way for broadcasters to better compete in the increasingly complex TV landscape, told the FCC six months ago that continuing uncertainty over the lack of a date is hampering progress.

“The record developed here confirms that the Commission’s central task is no longer to debate whether NextGen TV is worth pursuing—stakeholders across the ecosystem recognize that it is—but to decide whether the transition will be allowed to succeed through an orderly, coordinated framework, or instead be stranded indefinitely in a regime of regulatory uncertainty and half-measures, all to the detriment of the viewing public,” the NAB said in comments filed with the commission in February.

Currently approximately 76% of U.S. households can receive a NextGen TV signal, according to the ATSC. In April, Pearl TV Group, a consortium of broadcasters and tech suppliers, announced the launch of an initiative to develop consumer converter boxes that could retail for under $60.

The association has also launched a campaign to help preserve live sports on free over the air TV, again noting the increased competition from streaming giants.

The ability to access live sports over free TV, competition from Silicon Valley and the very survival of broadcasting were tied together in NAB’s latest blog. The association also took aim at viewers who criticize the content protection aspects of ATSC 3.0, with many claiming that certain devices on the market don’t carry the necessary software to decode DRM-protected signals.

“ATSC 3.0 includes security and service-protection mechanisms as part of its technical framework, just as modern communications and entertainment platforms routinely protect their content and distribution systems, the NAB said. “There is an important reason for these protections. Broadcasters invest substantial resources to secure sports, entertainment and other high-value programming. They also invest every day in local journalists, meteorologists, production professionals and the technology needed to keep communities informed and safe.”

“Without reasonable safeguards, unauthorized businesses can capture local stations’ signals and resell them at scale without permission or compensation,” the association added.

NAB also criticized the possibility that the broadcast industry could be saddled with outdated technology, impacting its competitiveness.

“Requiring broadcasters to operate a decades-old standard forever would effectively make free, over-the-air television the only major communications platform that is never permitted to modernize,” it said. “That would not protect viewers. Over time, it would leave viewers with an increasingly outdated service while streaming platforms, wireless providers and global technology companies continue to innovate.”

NAB’s latest blog can be accessed here.

Hitomi Broadcast will introduce Spectra, a new HDR color verification tool as well as its Matchbox Panorama timing solution at IBC2026, Sept. 11-14 at the RAI Amsterdam. Expanding its capabilities beyond timing and synchronization, Spectra helps engineers confirm that color remains accurate as pictures move through complex production and distribution routes, the company said.

Live workflows now carry more formats and versions through the same facility, including SDR and HDR outputs from a single production. As signals pass through converters, routers, processors, LUTs and software workflows, one configuration error can leave the program technically wrong even when the picture looks acceptable during initial checks.

“In the pressure of set-up, errors in a video source can be missed because there is a recognizable picture,” said Russell Johnson, Director at Hitomi. “If the color path is wrong, that problem can travel through the workflow and affect the final program.

“Engineers are dealing with more sources, more formats and more delivery paths than ever before,” Johnson added. “With MatchBox, we made timing checks fast, objective and simple. With Spectra, we are applying the same thinking, giving teams certainty that the image is being handled correctly before it reaches the viewer.”

Hitomi’s color verification solution generates a defined set of test colors at the source, sends them through the normal program route and analyzes them at the end. By comparing the received colors with the expected result, it can highlight incorrect LUTs, unexpected conversions and routing errors between SDR and HDR paths.

That gives engineers a fast, objective check which reduces reliance on visual judgement alone and helps catch configuration errors before they become visible on air, according to the company.

MatchBox Panorama will also make its IBC debut following its launch at the 2026 NAB Show in April. Matchbox provides a wide view of timing throughout the entire production workflow of a live broadcast. Panorama brings timing measurements from across complex production workflows into one central view, helping teams identify where delay is being introduced across facilities, remote production and software-based environments.

MatchBox Panorama is a standalone software product designed for larger production environments. It is already proven within the Grass Valley AMPP ecosystem, with further integrations with other manufacturers to be released soon.

Hitomi will be in Stand 10.A40 during the show.

LAUSANNE, Switzerland, and CINCINNATI—Scripps Sports has signed an agreement with Volleyball World for the U.S. domestic broadcast rights for all 64 games of the 2027 Women’s Volleyball World Cup for Ion and Scripps Sports.

The deal, which covers English- and Spanish-language rights for all tournament games, was facilitated by Horizon Sports & Experiences (HS&E), the exclusive sponsorship and media rights sales agency for the 2027 FIVB Women’s Volleyball World Cup. Volleyball World is the 2027 FIVB Women’s Volleyball World Cup organizing committee.

As part of the deal, Ion, FIVB Women’s Volleyball World Cup 2027 and Horizon Sports & Experiences will collaborate on title and presenting sponsorship sales packages.

The 2027 FIVB Women’s Volleyball World Cup adds to Scripps’ growing portfolio of women’s sports rights, including the WNBA, NWSL (National Women’s Soccer League), PWHL (Professional Women’s Hockey League) and Premier Women’s Rodeo (PWR).

“The FIVB Women's Volleyball World Cup is a premier global tournament that showcases the incredible athleticism and competitive intensity of the world's best volleyball players,” Scripps Sports President Brian Lawlor said. “We’re thrilled and honored to bring the 2027 event to ION and to the millions of loyal and passionate volleyball fans across the United States.”

The three-week tournament will feature 32 national teams in competition in the U.S. and Canada in August and September of 2027.

The deal comes amid growing interest in volleyball and women’s sports. The 2027 FIVB Women’s Volleyball World Cup will also play a significant role on the road to the 2028 Los Angeles Summer Olympics, with the three highest-finishing national teams that have not already qualified securing their places in L.A.

It was a near miss last week for several radio stations as a fire in southern Colorado burned out of control.

The Aspen Acres wildfire came within several hundred feet of the Camp Jackson tower that contains critical emergency and commercial radio equipment, according to reports

The fire near Rye, Colo., has consumed nearly 100,000 acres of the San Isabel National Forest in the Wet Mountains. It also burned hundreds of homes across Pueblo County. As of Monday afternoon it was about 36% contained, according to news reports.

Semi-retired independent broadcast engineer Michael Baldauf, a Radio World contributor who helps maintain the broadcast site, told Radio World the fire came within a tenth of a mile of the mountaintop facility.

Camp Jackson is situated at an elevation of about 8,600 feet. The tower hosts broadcast antennas for KTPL(FM), WAY-FM’s KRWA(FM) and K-Love’s KWRY(FM) and KRNX(FM), all of which air Christian programming.

Baldauf said the stations have been off the air since power was cut to the tower site around July 1, shortly after the Aspen Acres fire started.

The site has achieved some prominence during the Aspen Acres fire, serving as a critical vantage point and infrastructure anchor for containment operations.

Baldauf himself lives about 10 minutes away but he was evacuated from his home two weeks ago.

He says the fire has burned through the foothills and is burning across the mountain face. As of Monday his home and Camp Jackson appeared to be safe barring a change in wind direction.

“The Sheriff’s Department escorted me up there last week. It all looks fine, but everything had a layer of pink dust on it from fire retardant. It was a very close call,” Baldauf told us.

“I turned off all the circuit breakers in the building so when power is eventually restored, the transmitters won’t automatically start back up. That way I can make sure they are ready to go.”

The four radio stations remain off air, Baldauf said, but the site is approximately 60 miles southwest of Colorado Springs, which has FM signals carrying Christian programming that can serve the Rye area.

He serves as a contract engineer for several of the stations. In the winter, he snowshoes into the site to perform maintenance duties.

“I’m the eyes and ears on the ground here. WAY-FM and K-Love have broadcast engineers in Colorado Springs, but this is so remote that it’s hard to get to.”

Camp Jackson was built in the early 1980s. There is no TV on the tower, Baldauf said, but there are several government agency repeaters.

Baldauf says it’s possible that Camp Jackson received protection from firefights because it had been used by the YMCA as a summer camp for underprivileged youth for about 50 years. The site has a medium-size lodge and some additional outbuildings.

“The fire service is looking to protect property and lives, so having the YMCA camp buildings there likely increased their attention to the area,” he said.

The Colorado Sun reported on Monday that the fire could burn for months.

[This article originally appeared in our sister publication Radio World. Their coverage of the industry is available here.]

McLEAN, Va.—Tegna has promoted Scott Gill to vice president of operations, responsible for overseeing engineering, technology and sports operations across the group’s 64 local stations.

He’ll be tasked with leading efforts to strengthen station performance, modernize infrastructure and support the delivery of the company’s journalism product across broadcast, streaming and mobile platforms.

Gill, who joined Tegna in 2012, was most recently head of technology and sports operations.

[Also Read: Court Denies Stay of Nexstar-Tegna Merger]

“Scott brings a unique combination of operational expertise, technical leadership and innovation to this position,” said Kurt Rao, Tegna executive vice president, chief technology and digital products officer. “He's played a critical role in advancing our stations’ technology, and he has the expertise we need to strengthen our operations as we continue to shape the future of local media.”

As head of technology and sports operations, Gill defined and executed technological and operational strategies across Tegna’s broadcast station while supporting its NBA, WNBA, NHL, MLB and other live sports properties, as well as nationally syndicated programming.

He also directed and managed Tegna’s drone and helicopter technologies and pilot operations.

“I’m excited to take on this new role leading tech and operations teams across Tegna,” Gill said. “Local journalism depends on strong technology. I look forward to working with our station leaders to strengthen the tools our newsrooms rely on to serve our communities.”

Before joining Tegna, Gill worked for 10 years in field operations at Fox News Channel. He also worked at Harpo Productions on The Oprah Winfrey Show and at several TV stations and production facilities. Outside of broadcasting, he is a former emergency medical technician and a pilot, Tegna said.

As broadcasters continue transitioning to IP-based workflows, industry leaders are exploring new approaches that could improve interoperability, collaboration and operational flexibility.

At the heart of these discussions is the Dynamic Media Facility (DMF) and related Media eXchange Layer (MXL), emerging frameworks intended to help broadcasters determine how the next generation of software-defined workflows could work.

The topic was explored during a panel hosted by the North American Broadcasters Association (NABA), in conjunction with the Advanced Media Workflow Association (AMWA), featuring moderator Steve Reynolds, CEO, Imagine Communications, and guest speakers Naveed Aslam, senior vice president of Production Technology and Engineering, CBS/Paramount; John Mailhot, senior vice president of Product Management, Imagine Communications; Willem Vermost, senior IP media technology architect, EBU; and Andy Rayner, CTO, Appear.

“Much of media processing now runs in software, in a combination of on-premises and in the cloud,” Reynolds said. “And so, if everything is now moving to software, we have to ask the question: are we still designing our facilities in the right way?”

Panelists said DMF was created to address this question, driving the industry forward while solving key business challenges such as how to improve efficiency and allow broadcasters and their partners to share “very expensive resources” amongst more productions.

“I think, from our perspective, SMPTE ST 2110 and IP-based workflows have largely been understood and embraced as being the next industry evolutionary step,” Aslam said. “From our perspective, the DMF initiative is truly the key to start unlocking the practical and technological benefits that we can derive from an IP infrastructure, the opportunities that arise from that, and it just truly starts to give us an opportunity to explore what IP workflows can be.”

The panel explained that neither DMF nor MXL are meant to replace SMPTE ST 2110, the technical standards that gives broadcasters a means to transport broadcast-quality signals over IP networks, enabling them to scale workflows and providing a foundation for interoperability.

Rather, all three are designed to work together: DMF provides a framework for the next generation of more dynamic, software-defined facilities, while MXL provides a specific mode for connecting applications and services, effectively enabling interoperability inside of a computing cluster.

“It’s really the goal of the DMF to organize those upper layers so that you can actually have a dynamic facility,” Mailhot said. “I think that 2110 and MXL will work together to achieve that, but there’s a lot of work to do to fill in all those blanks.”

“If we work in an asynchronous way, suddenly more media functions can be run than ever before. Within the same time frame, of a frame, multiple operations can be run,” Vermost said.

“If you look at it from that point of view, it seems like a revolution. But, if you look at it from your broadcast plant and how you operate it, it’s an evolution. We’ll get there step by step.”

Panel discussion is available on demand on NABA's YouTube channel.

For most of broadcast history, captioning was treated as a metadata problem. QC systems checked whether caption data was present, whether files were correctly formatted, and whether character encoding was valid. If a CEA-608 or CEA-708 stream was embedded and a sidecar file — SCC, SRT, WebVTT — was properly formed, the asset passed. Whether the captions accurately reflected what was spoken was largely outside the scope of automated review.

FCC requirements in the United States and emerging mandates across Europe have moved from nominal compliance gates to substantive quality standards. Caption files that pass every technical check can still fail on accuracy, synchronization, or readability.

What broadcast and streaming organizations need is content-level validation: verifying that captions are accurate, properly timed, readable, and ready for multiplatform delivery. Captioning is becoming part of the broader media intelligence layer — one that evaluates a caption track against the content it accompanies, treating accuracy, timing, readability, and compliance as properties the system actively measures.

Caption Accuracy Starts With the Audio Track
The practical difference between metadata validation and content validation shows up in what each one misses. A traditional QC pass confirms that a caption file is present and well- formed. It does not detect dialogue that was misheard during transcription, lines that were omitted, or text that lags consistently behind speech — all failure modes that reach viewers and, increasingly, regulators.

Content-intelligent captioning systems work directly with audio. Modern automatic speech recognition (ASR) models transcribe spoken dialogue from the audio track, producing a reference against which existing captions can be checked, or generating a new track directly. Current-generation ASR achieves word error rates below 5% on standard broadcast dialogue — comparable to experienced human transcribers, and substantially lower than error rates produced under the time pressure of manual captioning at scale.

Accurate transcription addresses what is said; alignment addresses when it appears. AI alignment engines analyze audio waveforms to synchronize caption timing against actual speech, accounting for pace variation and pausing that fixed-offset methods miss. Captions that drift from dialogue constitute a real accessibility failure, and automated alignment catches those errors systematically across an entire content library. These systems can also surface compliance risk before delivery, flagging assets where timing drift, word error rate, or reading speed exceeds regulatory thresholds.

How Captions Render on Screen
A caption that is correctly transcribed and timed can still be difficult to follow if segmented poorly. Breaking mid-phrase or mid-clause forces viewers to piece together meaning across display windows. This presents a functional problem for all audiences and a more significant one for viewers with hearing impairments who rely on captions as their primary communication channel.

Rather than breaking text at fixed character counts, machine learning models identify natural language boundaries, such as clause endings, breath pauses, and semantic units, then segment accordingly. The result is captions that read more naturally. Emerging standards reflect this: quality evaluation is increasingly extending from file validity to content readability, including reading speed, display duration, and caption segmentation.

A complete evaluation also requires reference to the video frame. Text that covers a speaker's face, obscures on-screen graphics, or overlaps burnt-in text creates problems that fall outside the scope of transcription-level review. Managing visual placement has traditionally required frame-by-frame manual review or post-production adjustment — both slow and unsystematic at the scale modern workflows demand.

Video analysis integrated into current captioning platforms detects faces, on-screen graphics, and critical visual elements, then adjusts caption positioning automatically. These tools can also prevent captions from spanning scene-change boundaries, a source of visual discontinuity invisible to metadata validation. The caption track is evaluated against the full audio-visual context of the content it serves — a quality assurance step that operates where file-level checks end.

From One Validated Track to Many
Once a base caption track has been validated, the same content intelligence can carry through to multilingual delivery. Machine translation pipelines generate multilingual versions from that source track without a proportional increase in localization effort. Additionally, systems incorporating large language models can preserve timing, segmentation logic, and reading-speed compliance across the target language, so translated tracks inherit the quality properties of the source without a separate QC cycle.

Broadcast, OTT, and streaming platforms each impose distinct caption format requirements, and a caption track that passes QC for one delivery destination may fail for another. Generating and validating multiple output formats — SCC, WebVTT, TTML, and others — within the same pipeline means format-specific compliance is confirmed once, upstream, before distribution splits across platforms.

Accuracy That Compounds With Use
One persistent limitation of traditional captioning pipelines is that errors recur without systematic correction. When a captioning process mishandles a recurring term, such as a character name, an athlete, or a brand, that error propagates across multiple assets with no mechanism to resolve it at the source.

Content-intelligent platforms address this through a continuous learning loop. When operators review and correct AI-generated captions, those corrections are captured and used to fine-tune the underlying model. Over successive production cycles, the system becomes progressively more accurate for that organization's specific content mix, speakers, and terminology. This provides a meaningful advantage over static vendor relationships, where the same errors resurface without correction.

Moving Quality Decisions Upstream
These capabilities move captioning from a production checkpoint into a media quality system. Content-intelligent workflows generate structured, validated caption data that feeds directly into MAM systems, localization platforms, and distribution pipelines. The caption track arrives at each stage as a verified asset, ready for use without additional QC. That changes where quality decisions happen. Compliance risk is surfaced before delivery.

Multilingual tracks inherit the quality properties of the source. Format-specific requirements are confirmed once, before distribution splits across platforms. The underlying shift is from discovering caption failures at the point of delivery, where correction is costly and timelines are unforgiving, to catching them at the point of production.

TV Tech is now accepting nominations for the IBC2026 Best of Show Award.

The awards are open to IBC2026 show exhibitors and offer a valuable platform for companies to raise awareness for the new products and solutions they will be launching or showcasing at the RAI Amsterdam, Sept. 11-14.

Participating brands include TV Tech, TVBEurope, Radio World, AV Technology, Installation, Sound & Video Contractor and ITPro. Each publication announces its own list of winners, which will be announced at the show.

All award entrants will receive a placard at the show for display, with winners receiving an additional placard to display their success.

The nomination page includes answers to frequently asked questions. Deadline for entry is August 28th.

ATLANTA—WUPA Atlanta has launched “CBS News Atlanta At Noon,” a live weekday newscast providing viewers with additional breaking news, weather and community-focused coverage.

The July 13 launch continues the station’s steady growth in local news programming since it debuted its news operation last September. WUPA brands itself on-air as CBS Atlanta.

“Since launching our local news operation, we have remained focused on building a strong community-centered news brand for viewers across metro Atlanta and North Georgia,” said Tom Canedo, president and general manager of CBS Stations Atlanta. “Adding a live noon newscast is another important step in that growth, giving audiences more opportunities to access trusted local news, weather and information throughout the day.”

The newscast is anchored by T.J. Anthony and meteorologist Johnathan Myers.

“Atlanta viewers want timely local information they can rely on throughout the day,” CBS Atlanta News Director Shawn Hoder added. “Launching ‘CBS News Atlanta At Noon’ gives us another opportunity to deliver breaking news, weather and community-focused reporting while continuing to grow our local news presence in the market.”

All CBS Atlanta newscasts are produced using advanced augmented reality and virtual reality technology, creating immersive storytelling experiences that help viewers better understand weather events, breaking news and complex topics.

NOAA’s National Weather Service (NWS) Mission Systems and Technology Office has announced that it is working with SpectraRep to evaluate how broadcast television datacasting could serve as a resilient and redundant pathway for delivering NOAA Weather Radio audio and data to transmitters and digital devices.

More specifically, as part of a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA), NOAA/NWS and SpectraRep, LLC will assess whether existing digital television broadcast infrastructure can enhance the distribution of NWR content, particularly during periods when other networks may be disrupted.

The project will also examine opportunities to expand endpoint delivery options to reach modern digital and mobile platforms without altering or replacing existing NOAA Weather Radio services.

“NOAA/NWS is looking forward to collaborating with SpectraRep, LLC to evaluate innovative approaches for delivering NOAA Weather Radio content via datacasting and other pathways for modernizing access to NOAA Weather Radio content,” says George Jungbluth, Director for NWS Mission Systems and Technology Office.

For more than 50 years, NOAA Weather Radio has been a critical component of the nation’s public warning infrastructure, providing continuous forecasts, watches, warnings, and emergency information to communities, emergency managers, and partner organizations.

Television datacasting uses a small portion of a digital TV broadcast signal to securely transmit data as a one-way service that is unseen by television viewers and the general public. Digital television datacasting is designed for very high availability—exceeding 99.9% annually nationwide—making it a potential candidate for improving continuity of operations during emergencies, NOAA said.

As part of the research, SpectraRep, will also work with NOAA/NWS to better understand the current NOAA Weather Radio workflow, including how content is generated and transmitted.

Using NOAA/NWS content and technical expertise, SpectraRep, LLC will configure a demonstration showing how live NOAA Weather Radio content can be securely transported through a local television broadcast partner and delivered to a NOAA endpoint(s), such as a NOAA Weather Radio transmitter.

SpectraRep, LLC will also share access and seek feedback on their AlertNowM mobile solution which can tap into multiple transport paths—including radio, broadcast datacasting, and internet sources—on a single mobile platform.

The results will be used to develop strategies for strengthening NOAA Weather Radio’s resiliency and expanding access for digital audiences nationwide, NOAA said.

ALBANY, N.Y.—The New York State Broadcasters Association has named Heidi Raphael its president and CEO.

Raphael, currently chief communications officer of radio and digital media company Beasley Media Group, will direct the NYBSA’s government relations and advocacy efforts in Albany and in Washington, D.C., the group said.

The Western New York native succeeds David Donovan, who is transitioning out of the group’s president and CEO role later this year after 15 years as its leader.

“We are thrilled to welcome Heidi Raphael as the next President and CEO of the New York State Broadcasters Association,” said NYSBA Chairman Chris Musial, the vice president and general manager of WBBZ-TV Buffalo. “Heidi brings an exceptional combination of leadership experience, industry knowledge and passion for broadcasting. We are confident she is the right leader to guide NYSBA into its next chapter while continuing the outstanding work David Donovan has led over the past decade and a half.”

Raphael joins the NYSBA after a 30-year career in broadcasting, communications, public affairs and industry advocacy. During her decade-long tenure at Beasley, she led the company’s communications strategy, strengthened its industry presence and supported its major corporate initiatives and strategic growth efforts, NYSBA said.

Prior to Beasley, Raphael was with privately held broadcaster Greater Media for more than 20 years, rising through the corporate ranks to become senior VP, corporate communications, the NYSBA said.

MUNICH—ARRI announced today that it is selling its global equipment rental business in Europe, the United Kingdom, and North America to H2 Equity Partners. Illumination Dynamics—ARRI’s lighting and power equipment rental business—will remain part of ARRI and is not included in the transaction.

Coming several months after ARRI announced that it was being acquired by Riedel Communications owner Thomas Riedel, ARRI said the divestiture “is a planned and significant element of ARRI’s long-term strategic development.”

ARRI said that a key rationale for the transaction is to resolve a structural conflict of interest between ARRI’s manufacturing business and its own rental business: as a manufacturer of camera and lighting technology, ARRI supplies customers and partners worldwide, some of whom compete with its rental activities.

Through this transaction, ARRI said it will sharpen its focus on the development, production and commercialization of innovative camera, lighting and software-based technologies, thereby strengthening its role as an independent and trusted technology partner to the global media and entertainment industry.

“This transaction is a milestone in ARRI’s strategic transformation and future positioning,” said Thomas Riedel, owner of ARRI as well as founder and owner of Riedel Communications and the Riedel Group. “It enables us to direct our investments even more specifically toward the further development of our technologies and new growth areas. At the same time, it allows the rental business to continue to develop independently and to unlock additional market potential.”

The management buy-out is led by ARRI Rental's existing UK-based leadership team of Dana Harrison, Russell Allen and Tamim Essaji, in partnership with H2 Equity Partners.

Dana Harrison and Andy Shipsides will continue their leadership responsibilities in the respective regions and will, together with their teams, ensure long-term customer relationships and operational continuity. Harrison will also serve as CEO of the global rental business.

The new standalone rental group will transition to its own brand after a customary transition period.

With the end of the World Cup approaching and the start of football season coming up in August, DirecTV and E.W. Scripps have announced a new multi-year agreement that will return 54 local broadcast stations owned and operated by the station group to DirecTV’s streaming, satellite, and U-verse customers.

The agreement ends a five-week blackout affecting millions of customers across 36 Nielsen DMAs, including Baltimore, Buffalo, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Denver, Detroit, Kansas City, Las Vegas, Milwaukee, Nashville, Phoenix, Salt Lake City, Tampa-St. Petersburg, and others.

“These agreements recognize the enduring value of local television stations as essential infrastructure for American communities,” said Adam Symson, Scripps’ president and CEO. “Our stations save lives with severe weather alerts, provide critical emergency information during natural disasters, deliver local news that informs and holds power in check, and unite communities through live sports that no other platform can replicate."

“Fair compensation from distribution partners ensures we can sustain these essential public services for millions of Americans who depend on us for accessible, trusted connection to what matters most in their daily lives," he added.

While the agreement ends the dispute, DirecTV continued to criticize the process of negotiating new retransmission consent agreements with station groups.

“[W]e are frustrated that broadcasters use blackouts as a tool to force us to accept unwarranted rate hikes that consistently exceed normal, inflationary increases, and by a lot,” said Rob Thun, chief content officer at DirecTV. “At a time when affordability matters more than ever, families are too often asked to pay more while receiving less…[A]s ownership becomes concentrated among a handful of ever-larger broadcasters gaining stations across new and within their existing markets, those expanded stations become increasingly powerful and further unbalanced negotiating tools. The more markets and major network affiliations a broadcaster controls, the greater its ability to withhold programming from the very communities it is meant to serve.”

“Consumers should never lose access to essential local television because of a carriage dispute,” he added. “It's time to modernize the system so it rewards service to local communities—and not consolidated market power—by returning to the original purpose of broadcasting of putting viewers’ interests first.”

Separately, DirecTV is part of an antitrust lawsuit in California seeking to block the Nexstar/Tegna merger that would further consolidate the industry.

Broadcasters have long argued that consolidation is necessary to help them compete with big tech companies who already dominate the ad and streaming businesses.

WASHINGTON—The National Association of Broadcasters has launched a redesigned Spot Center website that makes it even easier for local radio and television stations to access high-quality public service campaigns from trusted nonprofit organizations.

Local broadcasters have a long history of serving their communities beyond news and entertainment by being involved in local issues and organizations with PSAs, volunteer efforts, education or fundraising.

The NAB's Spot Center is designed to support that mission by providing stations with educational resources to inform and engage their audiences.

The improvements to the site aim to provide a cleaner, more intuitive experience where broadcasters can browse, download and voluntarily air public service announcements on issues affecting their communities, including heatstroke, Alzheimer’s and drug-impaired driving.

More specifically, the NAB’s Spot Center includes:

• Broadcast-ready public service materials for local stations.
• Free-to-use campaigns available at no cost to broadcasters.
• Credible content from established organizations on important public issues.

More information on the new Spot Center is available here.

ORLANDO, Fla.—Media technology company FreeCast has unveiled FreeCast Cities, a new direct-to-consumer streaming platform designed to deliver local streaming experiences tailored to each of the 210 U.S. Designated Market Areas (DMAs).

FreeCast Cities, already in beta testing, combines local television, free streaming channels, premium television services, on-demand entertainment and subscription management into a single consumer experience accessible across supported televisions, mobile devices, computers and connected streaming platforms.

FreeCast Cities is marketing itself as: "One City. One Login. All Your Television."

Each FreeCast Cities market is intended to provide a locally branded streaming destination. This destination will feature participating local broadcast television stations, using FreeCast's Broadcast-Enabled Streaming Technology (BEST), alongside hundreds of free FAST channels, free ad-supported movies and television programming, optional premium entertainment services and integrated subscription management capabilities.

The platform also incorporates SmartGuide, FreeCast's universal discovery engine, enabling users to search across supported live television, streaming services, connected subscriptions and on-demand programming through a single interface. Through MediaPay, eligible subscription services may be purchased, managed and billed within one account, creating a simplified consumer experience.

FreeCast said it expects the platform to include DirecTV residential offers, providing eligible consumers with the ability to add premium live television programming, sports, movies and other content through internet delivery without requiring a traditional home satellite dish or additional dedicated receiving hardware.

The company will introduce the platform in phases. It said it expects to introduce individual city launches on a market-by-market basis, generally in groups of about one to three markets at a time, as commercial agreements, broadcaster participation, content availability, operational readiness and related deployment milestones are completed.

Each market launch is expected to be announced individually, allowing consumers, broadcasters, advertisers and commercial partners to understand the unique local programming and services available within each participating community more fully.

"Television has become increasingly fragmented across dozens of applications, subscriptions and devices," said William (Bill) Mobley, CEO of FreeCast. "FreeCast Cities was developed to simplify that experience by bringing local television together with streaming services, premium entertainment and subscription management into one unified platform. We believe introducing markets individually will allow us to work closely with local broadcasters and partners while delivering a more localized experience for consumers."

FreeCast Cities is built upon the same enterprise Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) infrastructure the Company offers telecommunications providers, broadband operators, municipalities, multifamily communities, hospitality providers, broadcasters and other commercial organizations. The consumer platform represents an additional application of that technology while maintaining compatibility with FreeCast's broader commercial ecosystem, it said.

More information is available on the company’s website.

A U.S. District Court yesterday denied a stay of the FCC Media Bureau’s approval of the merger of Nexstar and Tegna TV station groups, while a California judge set a trial date for lawsuits filed by DirecTV and state AGs, which are challenging the transaction.

Since announced in August 2025, the merger has faced opposition from other media companies, public interest groups and state attorneys general who filed a lawsuit in March, attempting to block the merger.

The merger, valued at $6.2 billion (when it was announced), would create a behemoth in the local broadcasting industry with 265 full-power television stations in 44 states and the District of Columbia and 132 of the country’s 210 television DMAs.

The acquisition closed in March after approval from the Federal Communications Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice.

In its decision announced yesterday, the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. denied a request for stay of the FCC’s approval, noting that harms that could come to the Broadband Communications Association of Pennsylvania and other appellants were “either not irreparable or not certain.” The court noted that a separate preliminary injunction in the Eastern District of California already obligated Nexstar to hold Tegna assets separate, operate stations independently, and maintain existing MVPD relationships.

Meanwhile, a California judge set a trial date of July 9, 2027 in a case that combines appeals to nix the merger from DirecTV and by attorneys general from 12 states. The court also set for discovery to close April 15, 2027 and the final pre-trial conference and hearing for June 23, 2027.

In a tweet on X yesterday, Nexstar said it “looks forward” to having its day in court to defend the deal.

Registration for NAB Show New York, set for Oct. 21-22 at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in Manhattan, is now open.

Last year's event drew 11,500 registered attendees from 95 countries, according to NAB, adding that roughly 10% of attendees came from outside the U.S., and 62% were first-time participants—evidence of the show’s expanding international reach and a fresh wave of creators, producers and decision-makers, organizers said.

Attendees will discover practical insights, evolving workflows, emerging business models, technology adoption and new opportunities across the media ecosystem. Sessions and programming will center on AI, the creator economy, streaming, sports and TV/radio broadcasting for a total of about 80 hours.

On the show floor, four unique theaters offer free educational programming, including keynote presentations, technology showcases, AI and creator sessions and specialized programming focused on sports media and professional audio.

Brands that will be represented include Sony, B&H, Blackmagic Design, EVS, Evertz, Ross Video, Grass Valley, Canon, Enco, Riedel Communications, Lawo and Facilis Technology. More than 200 exhibitors are expected to attend, with 10% of currently registered companies as first-timers.

"The media industry is navigating rapid change in technology, business models and audience behavior, and professionals need opportunities to understand what those changes mean for their work," said Karen Chupka, executive vice president of NAB Show.

"In the media capital of the world and a global hub for live production, NAB Show New York connects big industry conversations with practical insights, new tools and the people shaping what comes next."

TV Tech's complete coverage of the 2025 event can be found here and here.

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LONDON—Gravity Media, a global provider of production, content, media services and facilities, is powering an innovative reverse remote production setup for ITV’s FIFA Football World Cup coverage, connecting Gravity Media’s London Production Centre with ITV Sport’s live studio operations in New York through a fully integrated workflow.

In this three-hub production model, match feeds are received via the International Broadcast Center in Dallas and transmitted to Gravity Media’s London Production Centre, where production galleries are operated and enhanced with live editorial and presentation content.

Meanwhile, ITV Sport’s presenting team based in New York delivers the live studio segments, creating a seamless workflow across three international locations rather than a traditional single-site production. The result is a highly resilient, flexible production model that brings together transatlantic collaboration and state-of-the-art infrastructure.

The production also incorporates venue injects, with game-side presentation elements seamlessly integrated into Gravity Media’s London galleries, elevating storytelling and live coverage.

This project highlights Gravity Media’s continued investment in advanced remote production technologies and its ability to deliver complex, multi-location workflows at scale for major international sporting events, according to Kate Rendle, Global Sales Director at Gravity Media.

“This is a perfect example of how Gravity Media is redefining what’s possible in remote production. By integrating our London Production Centre with live presentation in New York, we’re able to deliver a seamless, resilient and highly creative workflow for one of the world’s biggest sporting events. Our investment in infrastructure ensures that we can support our clients with true operational flexibility and continuity, no matter what challenges arise. It’s about delivering innovation and reliability at scale, and we’re proud to be doing that for ITV.”

ITVX says it achieved its strongest monthly performance to date in June, crossing the 400 million monthly streams milestone for the first time in its history.

ITV Sport showed seven out of the top ten biggest matches in the group stages, including England's two winning games, with peak audiences of 16.4 million and 13.8 million respectively, as well as the opening match of the tournament, Mexico vs South Africa, Norway vs France, Netherlands vs Japan, Scotland vs Morocco, and Germany vs Cote D’Ivoire.

JERSEY CITY, N.J.—Fox Television Stations, XR (Extreme Reach) and LTN completed a successful four-week live syndication initiative in May for game show “25 Words or Less LIVE,” using IP-based distribution to deliver the program to stations and let viewers play along.

“Live programming creates unique opportunities for stations to engage viewers in real time,” said Stephen Brown, EVP Programming and Development, Fox Television Stations, Fox First Run. “This initiative demonstrated how innovative distribution strategies can support new programming models while maintaining the reliability broadcasters require.”

Produced for Fox First Run and hosted by Meredith Vieira, “25 Words or Less LIVE” aired weekdays from May 4–28, originating from Parlay Studios in Jersey City, N.J. More than 38 live episodes were delivered twice a day to 18 stations, many of which were Fox-owned-and- operated stations in key U.S. markets.

The workflow was powered by Extreme Reach’s syndication services and LTN’s managed IP video transport network.

The milestone project proved the viability of live syndicated television workflows that let broadcasters create more immediate and interactive viewing experiences, the companies said. Live delivery created new opportunities for stations to engage with viewers through social media, local promotions and real-time audience participation, allowing fans to play along with contestants.

XR and LTN delivered a live syndication workflow that allowed Fox to distribute the programming to participating stations nationwide. XR managed the show’s distribution through its syndication platform, while LTN provided fully managed IP transport and master control services connecting Fox’s production facility to local stations.

Together, the companies leveraged XR’s content-delivery expertise and LTN’s proven broadcast infrastructure to bring the excitement of live television to viewers nationwide, allowing fans to watch, interact and play along with the show as it happened.

“Delivering live syndicated programming requires coordination, precision and dependable technology partners,” Matt Pagen, general manager of XR Media, said. “Together with Fox and LTN, we created a workflow that helps broadcasters and syndicators engage audiences in new ways while maximizing their content investments. This combined offering delivered the performance we needed, while providing a more cost-efficient alternative to traditional satellite distribution.”

The initiative received positive feedback from participating stations. It showed how cloud-based and IP-enabled distribution models can support live television workflows that typically depend on legacy infrastructure. It also highlighted the potential for significant cost savings compared to traditional satellite distribution, without sacrificing the reliability, scale or viewer experience required for live television.

“This project represents the kind of innovation content creators and broadcasters are actively exploring as they modernize their distribution strategies,” LTN Senior Vice President of Global Products Rick Young said. “By combining Extreme Reach’s syndication expertise with LTN’s managed IP network and operational services, we enabled a reliable live television experience to stations across the country.”

More information is available on the XR Extreme Reach and LTN websites.

HACKENSACK, NJ—LAt the 2026 IBC Show, Sept. 11-14, LiveU will showcase what it refers to as its "Q Era," which uses AI-driven connectivity intelligence in a modular, open IP-video EcoSystem to automate live production workflows across news, sports, entertainment and other live events.

Among the highlights at its booth are the LU900Q, LiveU's Intelligent Production Unit, the first unit built natively around LiveU IQ (LIQ). The unit applies AI-driven connectivity intelligence and smart operator selection to optimize performance in real time, helping crews stay reliably connected in challenging conditions, according to the company.

Built for multi-camera workflows, the LU900Q combines native LIQ connectivity, advanced eSIM technology, optimized 5G modems and a MIMO antenna array with support for SDI, HDMI, USB and IP camera input. It delivers HD/4K transmission with 10-bit HDR 4:2:2 encoding, up to 32 audio channels, dual video return, dual intercom with built-in Bluetooth audio and wireless file transfer for faster field-to-production turnaround.

LiveU will also showcase its expanded collaboration with Sony Corporation, first announced at the 2026 NAB Show. On display, and currently available, will be the LiveU TX1—a compact, camera-mounted unit purpose-built for Sony's professional camera range—delivering fast, reliable bonded file transfer directly from the camera. Also demonstrated will be the Sony RXS Connection License, enabling direct file transfer from compatible Sony cameras to the PWA-RXS solution via supported LiveU field units, starting with the compact LU300S.

LiveU has also announced that Cuez has signed up as its latest EcoSystem partner, extending workflow automation into cloud-based newsroom and rundown management.

As a member of the EBU's working group, LiveU is actively involved in advancing the MXL shared-memory architecture – enabling multiple applications to access the same video frame simultaneously, eliminating redundant processing and reducing latency.

Together, these developments reflect the broader LiveU EcoSystem approach, supporting the full arc of live production, across live and file-based workflows.

Also at the LiveU booth is LiveU Nexus, a universal gateway for digital and IP workflows that converts, normalizes, and routes feeds across LRT, SRT, and RTMP, bridging social, online, and remote sources with traditional broadcast operations. As well as offering seamless digital source integration for Zoom, Teams and YouTube, it can be used as a scan converter for any web content, the company said.

LiveU Studio is a cloud-native production service for video switching, audio mixing, graphics, and more. It enables multi-output cloud production, allowing teams to deliver multiple feeds in multiple formats from a single production. Together, Nexus and Studio give newsrooms and digital teams a faster, leaner path from live event to published content—across every platform simultaneously.

Also on tap, LiveU Ingest, which replaces fragmented, manual processes with a single story-centric workflow for live and file based—from planning and scheduling through ingest, and metadata enrichment.

Actus Digital, a LiveU company, will showcase the latest capabilities of Actus X – a modular, browser-based platform that unifies compliance logging, low-latency multiviewing, QA monitoring, clip creation, and AI-powered media intelligence.

LiveU will be in Stand 7.C24 at the RAI Amsterdam.

The technology toolkit available to broadcasters has evolved dramatically over the past quarter-century.

During television’s digital and HD transition era, “future-proofing” became a favorite phrase among systems integrators designing 3G-SDI facilities. Yet television has never actually exceeded 1080i/720p over ATSC 1.0, which is effectively half-bandwidth HD, or 1.5G.

So why did Arizona Public Media (AZPM) choose to build a 4K facility, deploy virtual production capabilities and install 4K cameras in radio studios? The answer lies in understanding where content creation and distribution is headed.

Analyzing the Need
Recent industry research shows audiences are consuming streaming media at a greater rate than traditional broadcast-delivered content. Our own metrics at AZPM reflect the same trend. OTT consumption continues to grow while over-the-air viewership remains relatively flat.

As AZPM began planning the $65 million Paul and Alice Baker Center for Public Media (with a tech budget of about $10 million), we examined our current and future needs across TV, radio, streaming and digital media production. Our goal was to eliminate traditional silos and create technology-agnostic production spaces that support current workflows and can adapt to future requirements.

Quality was also a major consideration. AZPM already captures field content in 4K HDR using Sony FX6 and FX9 cameras and edits in DaVinci Resolve to leverage its advanced color-grading capabilities. Historically, however, field-acquired footage never fully matched in-house studio productions due to limitations in our 1080i SDR infrastructure.

While a migration to 3G HDR would have been the simpler path and would have produced solid results, we chose to push further by designing our internal production environment around 4K HDR. That decision naturally led to discussions about adding a dedicated color-correction suite and a Dolby Atmos mixing room.

We wanted to eliminate the traditional silos that often separate TV, radio, cable television and conference-room AV systems. Too often, these systems coexist without integrating effectively. We believed there had to be a better way.

Searching for the Answer
Because the AZPM facility was funded entirely through donor and member support, one of our earliest goals was to create a facility that donors would be proud to invest in while supporting our long-term mission.

Research became a critical part—the AZPM team visited numerous recently completed media facilities, observing operations and asking candid questions about what had worked well and what they would do differently.

Some organizations had committed to HD and 3G-SDI as their long-term strategy. Others aspired to deploy 12G infrastructures but were constrained by budget realities.

My vision for broadcasting’s future has always included both over-the-air and streaming delivery. Each platform offers distinct advantages. With ATSC 3.0 now approaching a decade of deployment, I remain hopeful that NextGen TV, coupled with integrated streaming experiences, can elevate OTA broadcasting by bringing content quality and user experiences closer to what audiences expect from streaming services.

AZPM currently broadcasts in ATSC 1.0 and 3.0 and chose to deploy a 1080p HDR NextGen TV signal. In doing so, we planted our flag firmly where we believe the industry must go to remain competitive and relevant.

Building the Team and the Plan
At AZPM, the transition began well before the move into the new facility. We migrated field-production equipment and editing systems to 4K HDR workflows while still operating from our existing location. Giving teams time to become comfortable with new tools and processes before introducing a completely new facility significantly reduced organizational friction.

My internal design team included leaders from engineering, information technology and production. Together, they transitioned to 4K acquisition, DaVinci Resolve workflows, LUT-based color management and enhanced audio production techniques.

The results were evident. This year, AZPM received eight regional Edward R. Murrow Awards for excellence in journalism. While great storytelling remains the most important factor, there is little doubt that improved production quality helped strengthen audience engagement and presentation.

As a result, when our production teams moved into the new facility, they encountered familiar workflows enhanced by better spaces, newer tools and expanded capabilities. The transition proved remarkably smooth.

Of course, adopting new technologies also introduces new support challenges. High-bandwidth IP-based production environments require expertise in software, networking, cybersecurity and systems integration that extends well beyond traditional broadcast engineering disciplines.

AZPM invested heavily in staff development while simultaneously upgrading portions of our existing facility to serve as a testing environment. Moving from HD to 4K requires more powerful editing systems, increased network capacity, improved monitoring and measurement tools, and significantly more storage.

Concept testing also played an important role in validating new operational models. One example was transforming a radio program into content that could simultaneously serve radio broadcast, podcast, vodcast, streaming and traditional television audiences.

To test the concept, we equipped an old radio studio with PTZ cameras, upgraded lighting and branded visual elements. A small flypack in an adjacent control room enabled student operators to produce the program efficiently with a much lighter operational footprint.

The experiment proved successful. Today, our new Press Room studio provides expanded space, dedicated cameras, planned lighting and digital signage capable of supporting a wide range of productions while maintaining operational efficiency.

Finding Partners
Successfully delivering a project of this scale while maintaining normal operations is an enormous challenge. Choosing the right partners was therefore one of the most important decisions we made.

We issued an RFP seeking a fully integrated design-build team capable of addressing construction, power, HVAC, acoustics and media facility requirements as a unified effort.

After selecting our construction partner, we completed a Phase 0 broadcast design study. I cannot overstate the importance of providing architects and builders with detailed requirements regarding space allocation, cable pathways, cooling capacity, power distribution and equipment density.

Our builder had recently completed a Meta data center and a film school production facility. Even so, assumptions can be dangerous.

For example, their initial studio-floor specification mirrored what had been used in film production environments. Television production places very different demands on floor surfaces. Pedestal-mounted cameras require strict flatness and levelness tolerances as defined by ASTM E1155-20. Without those standards, camera movements can become unstable and unlocked cameras can literally roll across the studio floor.

Perhaps the most important long-term partner in any facility project is the systems integrator. During installation, we routinely had 10 systems integration specialists on-site for six months to complete cabling, infrastructure deployment and equipment commissioning.

We ultimately selected a midsized systems integrator that demonstrated a willingness to innovate, collaborate and help us achieve our goals.

Building one of the region’s first fully IP-based media facilities—from VITEC-powered cable and digital signage systems to TAG multiviewers and an EVS-managed SMPTE ST 2110 infrastructure—is no small undertaking.

I must commend KCM (Key Code Media) for their collaborative approach and commitment to project success. On multiple occasions, we activated studio resources for live productions before formal project acceptance. KCM staff worked alongside our teams to ensure everything operated successfully, including complex 11-camera productions that occurred before final commissioning was complete.

From Skepticism to Enthusiasm
Few organizations are fortunate enough to build a greenfield media facility of this scale.

No project of this magnitude proceeds without challenges, compromises and occasional disappointments. Throughout the process, my goals remained straightforward: keep the team engaged, provide clear direction to our partners, maintain rigorous oversight and ensure that our staff remained healthy and focused.

One of the more amusing aspects of the transition was watching some of the strongest skeptics become enthusiastic advocates. Several longtime employees initially doubted that the new facility would improve their work, enhance quality or make their jobs more enjoyable.

Today, many of those same individuals enthusiastically explain to colleagues how they use the new tools, appreciate the new spaces and cannot imagine returning to the workflows of our previous facility.

In the end, most obstacles proved manageable and ultimately minor in the context of the overall project.

What I will carry forward from this experience is not only the accomplishment itself, but also the belief that the investment made by our donors, members, staff and partners has provided AZPM with a platform for innovation that will serve the organization for decades to come.

If we have done our jobs well, this facility will enable Arizona Public Media to create, innovate, educate and thrive for the next 75 years.

In my last column, I wrote about what I saw and heard on the exhibit floor at the 2026 NAB Show; this month, I’ll talk about the NAB Show’s Broadcast Engineering and IT (BEIT) Conference sessions as well as the National Television Association (formerly National Translator Association) conference in Reno, Nev., that I attended in May.

Production and streaming sessions at NAB Show focused on content creation and distribution of TV programs. However, several sessions on over-the-air transmission focused on datacasting and alternative uses for our 6-MHz RF channel beyond TV broadcasting.

As in past years, sessions were devoted to the Broadcast Positioning System, showing BPS can be a worthy backup to GPS and the progress in testing and implementation.

In “Real World Coverage Analysis of ATSC 3.0 BPS,” Jim Stenberg and Paul Shulins of Over The Air RF Consulting showed how to calculate coverage from a BPS station using their table of “BPS UHF Reception Planning Factors” (Fig. 1). A map showed excellent coverage from WHUT Washington’s BPS signal. However, the map (Fig. 2) also showed spots blocked by terrain with no coverage. As more stations transmit BPS, these spots will likely have service from another station transmitting from a different location or market.

The Case for SFNs
“Only SFNs Deliver ATSC 3.0 Everywhere: Turning Broadcast Theory into Nationwide Reality,” a presentation from Louis Libin, Sinclair’s vice president of spectrum policy and engineering, showed how important is was for broadcasters to start planning for single-frequency networks now, as coverage from a single high-power, high-tower transmission site will not provide the coverage and reliability customers expect from today’s wireless services whether consuming data or video.

“Optimizing ATSC 3.0 networks requires balancing throughput, robustness, and coverage simultaneously, reinforcing the need for architectures such as SFNs to meet the diverse and competing service requirements at the edge of coverage,” Libin said.

SFNs require additional transmitter sites, many of which are already used by other wireless services. Libin warned that broadcasters will be competing for tower space with 5G and 6G providers, and the window for securing tower access is closing. Broadcasters need to secure critical tower positions and begin building SFNs without delay or risk, as SFNs will determine broadcasting’s long-term survival.

I did not hear any mention of 5G Broadcast (the Long Term Evolution version) in any of the BEIT sessions. A more universal evolution of ATSC 3.0 into and beyond the 3GPP/5G/6G domain called B2X (aka “Broadcast-to-
Everything”) was outlined in “ATSC 3.0 and B2X Interworking with 5G Core and IP-Based Service Discovery for End-to-End Broadcast Integration” by Michael Simon, director of advanced technology at ONE Media Technologies; Rashmi Kamran, senior technical adviser at Free Stream Technologies India; and Sangsu Kim, senior director, One Media.

The Broadcast Core Network component of B2X provides the functions needed to implement a B2X Radio Access Network (BRAN) using Open Radio Access Network (O-RAN) features. Use of O-RAN allows easier interworking with other networks using O-RAN principles and interfaces and decouples hardware and software, enabling new applications and reducing obsolescence.

ATSC 3.0 offers broadcasters the opportunity to become a wireless CDN (content delivery network). In “Hybrid Media Distribution Utilizing ATSC 3.0/NextGen TV,” Yuriy Reznik, chief technology officer at Streaming Labs, compared the cost of existing CDN services and the potential revenue from an ATSC 3.0 CDN to see if it is a viable business case. The analysis studied the various available ATSC 3.0 bandwidths and coverage.

In summary, the “main result under the right conditions, ATSC 3.0 offload can deliver meaningful savings and improve one-to-many availability,” Reznik found. But the transition path matters, he noted. “Receiver penetration, gateway adoption, and an eventual ATSC 1.0 sunset could improve the economics.”

Streaming as Backup
Rather than using a broadcast station as a CDN, how about using streaming as a backup to over-the-air reception? That was the theme of “Enhancing ATSC 3.0 Service Reliability By Combining Broadcast and Broadband Services,” by Peter Gogas, director of NextGen technology at Gray Media.

A broadband fallback mode could be useful in areas where the ATSC 3.0 signal is blocked by terrain, degraded by urban multipath or receives interference, as is often the case with indoor reception of VHF channels. Implementing a combined service requires some changes to the ATSC A/331 standard. Refer to the presentation for details.

A key point: Changes would be backwards-compatible, so any ATSC 3.0 set without internet would not lose over-the-air content. Synchronizing content delivery between over-the-air and broadband will be a challenge. It requires aligning media segments and maintaining the same presentation timeline and media segment time span. Gogas recommended formatting synchronization expectations as an ATSC Recommended Practice.

Recruiting New Talent
“Finding and Engaging New Talent for Broadcast/Media Engineering,” sponsored by the Radio Club of America, was hosted by Andy Gladding, vice chair of the Society of Broadcast Engineers Chapter 15 and engineering manager for Salem Media’s New York City stations, and Bud Williamson, president and chairman of SBE Chapter 15, leader of Digital Radio Broadcasting Inc. and managing member of Neversink Media Group.

The presentation discussed the challenges facing modern broadcast engineering, including the need for “advanced knowledge of electronic, audio and/or video systems, contemporary production and studio environments, IT systems, troubleshooting skills and communication abilities” and that “pay is often lower than similar technical fields.”

It also showed how to successfully recruit new talent into broadcast engineering by enlisting the help of local college radio stations—in this case, Hofstra University’s WRHU Hempstead, N.Y. The presentation showed students making audio cables, visiting transmission facilities at the Empire State Building, and working together on projects.

Key points were “create programs that the students can drive,” “provide progress reports for the student as well as your corporate leadership team,” “publicize success,” “keep it fun!” “bring friends (your friends and their friends)” and “buy pizza.”

While the focus was on radio, the ideas shown here should work for students interested in TV as well.

The View From Reno
A few weeks after NAB Show, the National Television Association met in Reno, Nevada. This was the first time I attended, and it was a pleasure to be around so many people passionate about over-the-air television.

Mike Schmidt from Heartland Video Systems presented an option I hadn’t thought of for reducing MPEG-2 bandwidth requirements: Rather than coding HD video in MPEG-4, with the resulting compatibility issues, simply reduce the horizontal resolution by half: 960×1080.

Surprisingly, many viewers watching the half-resolution video saw little difference between it and 1920×1080 video.

I gave a presentation on the impact that interference from post-freeze LPTV applications, if granted, will have on existing full-power and low-power station viewers, particularly those near and just outside the station’s protected contour. It is available here.

Editor's note: This article was written prior to the FCC's formal announcement on June 30 of the planned auction of 160 MHz of midband spectrum.

As broadcasters wait for the FCC to release the ground rules for the congressionally mandated upper C-band auction in July 2027, the gap is widening between what their lobbyists and suppliers say will happen if they lose all 180 MHz of the high-value block.

The contrasting perspectives, ranging from near panic to sanguinity that—with enough transition time—broadcasters will be fine—played out in interviews, recent Federal Communications Commission filings and a high-level executive C-band panel at NAB Show. It’s still unclear how much spectrum will end up on the auction block, how long stations will have to make whatever transitions to alternatives are necessary and what they can expect in the way of compensation for the costs.

The View From NAB and NABA
Messaging from the National Association of Broadcasters, the North American Broadcast Association (NABA) and other industry representatives expressed deep concerns on all points, starting with the possibility of losing more than 100 MHz of upper C-band spectrum. After 60% of the overall C-band total vanished in the 2021 lower C-band auction, losing all 180 MHz in the upper band could cause irreparable harm, NABA Director-General Rebecca Hanson said.

“We have members already suffering after the first auction,” Hanson said, citing evidence submitted in an FCC filing by the North American Spectrum Alliance, an independent project launched last year under NABA management. “I hesitate to say broadcasters will be just fine if we can keep 80 GHz. Current constraints are already having an impact.

“There are no viable alternatives that match what C-band delivers,” she said. “Ku-band has rain-fade problems; fiber has penetration problems; there can be multiday outages on internet connections. In research you find claims to the contrary, but what’s in the NAB filings challenges those claims.”

Indeed, earlier this year NAB advised the commission, “The record consistently demonstrates that claims of ‘viable alternatives’ are overstated, unsupported, and incomplete.” It went so far as to cite discussions with broadcasters that showed one vendor’s claims of offering a terrestrial alternative to C-band with “zero downtime” over several years “to be false, or at least misleading.

“Terrestrial circuits are vulnerable to physical cuts, congestion, vendor outages and first-mile failures, with restoration times measured in hours or days—conditions completely incompatible with broadcast operations,” NAB said. “No one offers a universal, one-for-one [C-band] replacement capable of delivering the same reliability, coverage, scalability and resilience nationwide.”

‘So Many Options’
But the no “one-for-one replacement” caveat is beside the point for many broadcasters hoping to orchestrate various combinations of these transport solutions to meet NAB’s requirements. Even if the whole C-band sky falls, they said there’s reason to believe technology will open ways forward that could even work to their advantage.

“If we lose all or substantially all of the spectrum, which I think we probably will, our plan will be to forklift the traffic to Ku-band and then supplement that with some number of terrestrial paths,” said Alastair Hamilton, senior vice president of distribution engineering and architecture at Fox, who spoke on the NAB Show C-band panel. “I’m glad we have so many options.”

On the satellite front, along with the Ku-band option, broadcasters could also use low-earth orbit (LEO) satellite capacity, Hamilton noted. Deepak Mathur, president of media at SES, said the satellite operator is aggressively working with suppliers to design and build a new set of Ku-band satellites enabling higher power outputs in heavy rain zones and “cross-strapping” tie-ins to uplinks that work in the C-band.

“We believe that we can come very close, not exactly all the way there, but very, very close to the network reliability that you’ve enjoyed with C-band,” Mathur told the NAB Show panel audience. Setting 2030 as the target date when broadcasters would be able to deploy retrofitted Ku-band antennas for the uplink strategy, he added, “We’re on a good track to get there.”

The ‘Last-Mile’ Challenge
For many broadcasters, a comprehensive C-band replacement solution will have to include support for off-shore connectivity, which in CBS’s case includes service in the Caribbean, parts of Latin America and Canada. Whatever the hybrid replacement solution turns out to be, “it’s going to put more onus on us to make sure the carriers and the service providers are indeed routing the paths and have the proper resiliency within their networks,” Fuller said, noting that the last-mile transition is the “hard part.”

Hamilton agreed. “That’s the bit that worries us the most,” he said. “Our broadcast markets for the most part have some reasonable connectivity, and we can go to the top five or six MVPDs on the cable side with fiber, internet, satellite. We’ve got whatever the number is, 90%, but it’s that extra 10% that’s going to be the real challenge. I think we’re going to have to get creative.”

Just how hard that will be remains to be seen.

There’s a well-proven solution readily at hand, said Rich Young, head of global products at LTN, who appeared on a second vendor panel at the NAB Show C-band session. Station groups and multichannel operators can “bring one feed in” on the IP network and “deliver it with synchronized latency to every location,” he said, noting the LTN Network coverage was on course to connect customers accounting for an aggregate 1,700-plus broadcast station affiliates plus multichannel video programming distributors reaching 98% of “the MVPD eyeballs.”

The range of possibilities was well illustrated by last month’s announcement that 330 PBS member stations are adopting LTN’s IP platform. Without mentioning the upper C-band issue, PBS said the move was aimed at “modernizing and future proofing” the PBS Interconnection system. The LTN Network will deliver up to nine linear broadcast feeds from PBS and affiliated networks to member stations while enabling always-on support for inter-station content sharing and contributions of locally produced content to regional and national broadcasts.

LTN is tackling the C-band replacement issue with multivendor integrations and network enhancements aimed at improving reliability, scalability and operational visibility. For example, a collaboration with Appear integrates that firm’s high-density X Platform to support encoding and decoding IP-native live video contribution and distribution payloads on the LTN network.

Harmonic is another supplier partnering with LTN, in this case through a tie-in with Harmonic’s XOS Advanced Media Processor software appliance used in MVPD headends to unify encoding, playout and delivery. As Andrew Hildenbrandt, Harmonic’s solutions director for broadcast and primary distribution solutions, makes clear, LTN is just one of the paths XOS customers can take in their adjustments to C-band replacement.

“At the affiliate edge, XOS acts as a ‘headend-in-a-box,’ offering a flexible and
future-proof solution for distribution via Ku-band satellite, managed IP through partners like LTN or Zixi, CDN or hybrid workflows,” Hildenbrandt told TV Tech. “With XOS media processor, we are embracing a very straightforward but powerful idea: broadcasters and programmers can deliver any content, over any platform, to any affiliate.”

Multiplatform Approach
Other suppliers said it’s possible to fashion a seamless flow of live-event feeds into production and out to affiliates without relying on C-band, but doing so requires a means of orchestrating support from more than one platform.

Synamedia, for example, has long enabled use of its workflows in multiple transport environments, including “delivering content over satellite securely for over 30 years,” noted Synamedia Director of Distribution Kenelm Deen, another NAB Show C-band session speaker.

“There’s no one technology that will solve this,” Deen said. “There will be multiple technologies for different use-case applications.” He said Synamedia, with an edge platform “that can receive across any network technology, be it Ku with BSF [bandstop filters], IP, Zixi, SRT—any protocol,” is working with broadcasters to shape post-C-band paths precisely to their needs.

Zixi is also working with broadcasters making the transition from C-band on the assumption that “there’s no one technology that can replace it,” as Alan Young, vice president of strategic business development, put it during the NAB Show session. “We act as a trust boundary for a lot of traffic as it passes through the workflow,” he said.

Zixi’s Zen Master manages all the complexity of orchestrating hitless switching across multiuse IP networks so latency is deterministically fixed “everywhere at every receive site” with transmissions in and out of multiple vendor workflows, Young said. “Doing that, you can create five 9s or maybe even better if you add more paths,” he added, noting that Zixi “is working with pretty much everyone on this panel and many others.”

Blended Connectivity
Coming from a different perspective on support for C-band replacement through hybrid transmission solutions, Dejero has been showing broadcasters how its TITAN Command platform can be used to orchestrate video flows at high performance across 5G and LEO networks utilizing the blended connectivity enabled by its field-based EnGo 3 transmitter.

At the NAB Show, Dejero teamed with other suppliers, including Clear-Com, GlobalM, Matrox Video and Ross Video, in a live “field-to-air” demo that leveraged use of the TITAN Command orchestration platform to combine cellular and Eutelsat’s OneWeb LEO constellation into a resilient alternative to C-band in a multivendor environment.

“We have the right technology and are in the middle of trying to understand what the business model looks like and what the next steps should be,” said Kevin Fernandes, Dejero’s chief revenue officer, adding that working out the business model includes figuring out a way that LEO network capacity can be monetized for as-needed broadcast industry use.

“These discussions don’t happen overnight,” he added. “Right now, we’re putting TITAN out there and showing it works.”

Other suppliers are bucking the perception that C-band replacement requires hybrid multiplatform approaches by offering single-platform solutions they say can do the job with C-band-caliber performance on the internet. One such advocate is BCNEXXT. In an interview, Graham Sharp, its sales and marketing vice president, noted successes in the playout arena, including providing Sky Europe with cloud-based playout support on 220 channels, as a foundation to providing a C-band alternative.

“Our whole system is developed around reducing CPU power and distribution costs,” Sharp said, noting BCNEXXT is hoping to close on its first large U.S. station group deal by year’s end. “That’s why we think it’s a good alternative to satellite distribution.”

Another executive expressing confidence in a single IP-based platform solution to the C-band replacement issue is Michelle Munson, CEO and co-founder of Eluvio. At the NAB Show event, Munson said Eluvio’s global broadcast fabric supports any-to-any networks at global scales “built on top of TCP/IP with a novel decentralized content routing protocol that allows distribution meeting latency targets…with deterministic global switching” and “multipath SMPTE 2022-7 routing throughout.”

“One distribution serves all receivers, and along with that, each receiver is dynamically able to become a new output,” she added. “We have the flexibility, I think, this is really about. It’s not just about replacing satellite. It’s the transformation of the industry into what could be a truly over-the-top, flexible, simple, data-driven kind of workflow that we’ve really not been able to take advantage of before.”

Learn more about the challenges facing C-band users in the TV Tech Talk, “C-Band Spectrum Changes: The Next Infrastructure Shift for Broadcasters,” July 29 at 2 p.m. ET. To register, click here.

NEW YORK—Fox Television Stations has named Robert Lydick senior vice president of engineering, operations and technology for Fox Television Stations.

Lydick will report directly to FTS CEO Jack Abernethy and oversee all engineering, operations, and technology functions for the station group.

Lydick assumes his new role July 13, succeeding Tim Joyce, who retired at the end of June.

“Robert has been a key player at Tegna for over a decade and is a great fit for this role,“ Abernathy said. æHe has tremendous knowledge of our core stations business and a deep understanding of how to manage engineering and technology operations. He is a terrific addition to an already strong FTS bench of executives.”

Lydick was an engineering, technology and operations executive with station group Tegna for 15 yeears, most recently as VP of station operations and technology.

Before that, he was VP of information technology and station operations, overseeing day-to-day station operations, enterprise IT, cybersecurity and special projects. Before his coroprate roles, he was regional head of technology for Tegna stations KSDK St. Louis and KARE-TV Minneapolis.

Lydick began his media career more than 24 years ago at USA Today (then Gannett) where he held the positions of information analyst, project and planning analyst, and project and planning manager. A graduate of the University of Lynchburg, he holds a bachelor’s in business administration.

“Joining the Fox Television Stations is an exciting opportunity,” Lydick said. “I'm looking forward to working with an amazing team on some of local journalism's biggest technical challenges. I'm humbled to be in the role and can't wait to get started.”

Joyce was senior vice president of engineering, operations, and technology for FTS since January. Before that, he was senior vice president of media and broadcast engineering for Fox Corp. for nearly three ears.

Previously, Joyce served as the senior vice president of technology business relations for Fox Networks Group in Los Angeles, and before that, as vice president of broadcast operations for Fox Networks Group in Europe and Africa. He spent 6 years as vice president of operations and production services for National Geographic Channels International. Joyce began his career as a senior editor for Fox Latin American Channels. A graduate of the University of Southern California, he holds a bachelor’s degree in international relations and Spanish.

“Tim is an incredibly talented executive with experience across multiple roles and has been a vital part of transforming and advancing our engineering and technology systems," Abernethy said. "His intelligence, energy, and leadership skills have impressed me since his first day here and we wish him all the best on a well-deserved retirement even as we regret seeing him go.”

Added Joyce: “After 27 years at Fox—from Fox Latin American Channels to National Geographic, Fox International Channels Europe, Fox Tech, and Fox Television Stations—I've learned that while companies evolve and technology changes, it's the people who make the journey unforgettable. Thank you for being the best part of mine.”

FTS owns and operates 29 full-power U.S. television stations, including outlets in nine of the 10 largest DMAs and duopolies in 11 markets, including the top-3 DMAs of New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla.—Jericho Receivers, a subsidiary of All 6G, this week launched its Software-Defined Atomic Clock (SDAC), which intelligently fuses multiple independent time references, including the ATSC 3.0 broadcast platform, to deliver atomic-clock-grade timing that remains accurate even when Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) signals are jammed, spoofed or unavailable.

“The Software-Defined Atomic Clock represents a major leap forward in timing technology,” said Dean Goodman, CEO of Jericho Receivers' parent company, All 6G. “When the primary timing source is lost, conventional systems enter holdover and begin to drift. There has long been a need for a true complement to satellite signals. Our software-defined approach fuses the best available sources—satellite, broadcast, terrestrial and network—into one resilient, atomic-clock-grade solution. This is precisely the kind of innovation All 6G was founded to deliver: bridging decades of broadcast expertise with the secure, resilient infrastructure required for 5G, 6G and beyond.”

“By leveraging the ATSC 3.0 Broadcast as a core terrestrial timing source, Jericho’s Software-Defined Atomic Clock directly supports the resilient national PNT infrastructure that Chairman [Brendan] Carr and the FCC have highlighted as essential,” Goodman added. “We are proud to deliver a made-in-America solution that strengthens timing security for critical networks while accelerating the broader adoption of ATSC 3.0 capabilities.”

Traditional systems that rely on a holdover mode during satellite outages in which the device keeps its own internal time, making time drift inevitable. Unlike those alternatives, the Jericho SDAC continuously cross-references GNSS, terrestrial ATSC 3.0/BPS signals and network-based precision time protocols. This multi-source architecture provides robust, real-time resilience for mission-critical applications.

“ATSC 3.0 was designed from the ground up to support advanced applications far beyond traditional video delivery, including precise time transfer and positioning through the Broadcast Positioning System,” said Madeleine Noland, president of ATSC. “We are thrilled to see Jericho Receivers’ software-defined atomic clock harness the power of the ATSC 3.0 standard as a critical terrestrial complement. This deployment underscores broadcasting’s vital role in building a more resilient national timing infrastructure.”

The Jericho SDAC combines:

• Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) for primary high-precision timing.
• ATSC 3.0 terrestrial broadcasts, including the Broadcast Positioning System (BPS), as a powerful GPS-independent complement.
• Network precision time references and protocols for seamless integration with modern IP infrastructure.

The architecture of the device ensures continuous, high-accuracy synchronization in challenging environments and eliminates the countdown to failure inherent in traditional holdover modes. Designed and manufactured entirely in the United States in accordance with All 6G’s strict no-Chinese-chip policy, the SDAC is well-suited for 5G/6G networks, data centers, power grids, financial systems, defense applications and other critical infrastructure that require assured positioning, navigation and timing (PNT).

The Jericho SDAC is now available for evaluation and deployment.

More information is available on the company’s website.

Two unauthorized climbers who scaled to the top of the spire above the Empire State Building caused the New York City FM and TV stations broadcasting from antennas there to shift to backup antennas, on the same building but positioned lower on the structure, for about an hour Wednesday.

The shift followed building protocols as soon as the daredevils were reported, heavily driven by the extreme RF present on the live tower, two people familiar with the inner workings of the broadcast configuration at Empire told Radio World.

Many NYC FMs maintain backup antennas atop the Conde Nast Building at 4 Times Square.

The couple, identified by multiple reports as Angela Nikolau, 33, and Ivan Beerkus, 32, were seen holding a pro-peace banner atop the spire, 1,454 feet above the ground.

Radio and TV occupants returned to normal operations once the pair was off the spire.

Footage that multiple TV outlets revealed showed the couple dangling from the the former top mount master antenna that, according to Mike Fitzpatrick’s NECRAT website, once serviced the analog signals of WNBC and WNYW.

The couple had to make their way past the master antenna that 15 New York FMs call home, while two more—WPLJ(FM), WQHT(FM) and WCBS-FM—use the “Mini” master, which they also had to scale.

They also had to pass the VHF Hi Master antenna for WABC-TV and WPIX, plus the DTV master for WFUT and WXTV.

Police received 911 calls concerning the climbers around noon on Wednesday, according to reports.

The banner Nikolau and Beerkus hung read, “When the power of love beats the love of power the world knows peace.”

They were wearing masks during the ascent but were neither harnessed nor wearing any parachutes.

Visitors to the observation deck were also cleared as a safety precaution, according to reports.

After spending approximately half an hour at the top, the couple moved onto a platform where they embraced. Beerkus dropped to one knee and proposed to Nikolau, who accepted.

About 10 minutes later, they began descending.

Police officers from the NYPD’s Emergency Services Unit climbed up the spire to meet the two and placed them into custody just before 1 p.m.

The NYPD is reviewing surveillance from the Empire State Building, WABC-TV said. The two appeared to access the spire from a 102nd floor hatch used for maintenance, possibly by breaking a lock, WABC said.

Nikolau and Beerkus are known for their daredevil “rooftopping” climbs around the world. They were profiled in the 2024 documentary “Skywalkers: A Love Story,” currently available on Netflix.

Potential charges could include trespass and reckless endangerment, police sources told WCBS-TV.

[This article was originally published by our sister publication Radio World.]

As audiences around the world stream the 2026 FIFA World Cup, the conversation will not only focus on the matches on the pitch, but on the production quality and scale of the delivery infrastructure behind them. According to a Harris Poll survey, more than half of Americans plan to stream at least one match. This massive, simultaneous global demand does more than reveal viewing habits. It actively tests the limits of delivery systems.

Even as encoding and streaming technologies improve, viewers encounter buffering delays and sudden drops in quality when demand spikes. While these issues are often blamed on the streaming platforms themselves, they actually point to a deeper structural constraint within the underlying network architecture.

Streaming this year’s tournament reveals a problem that has been quietly building for years as video has become the dominant workload on the internet. It’s a clear signal that the internet is approaching another major inflection point, one that will require completely rethinking how content is delivered at scale.

Every Network Evolution Starts With a New Application
Network evolution is not new. In the 1990s, telecom networks were built for voice traffic and predictable calling patterns. When consumers shifted in droves to the early internet, those assumptions broke down. Calls that typically lasted minutes turned into online sessions that lasted hours.

This resulted in regulatory filings to the FCC arguing that because dial-up users were holding switches open indefinitely, a non-internet user in the same neighborhood trying to dial 911 could receive a busy signal. The existing network was simply not optimized for how it was suddenly being used.

The industry’s answer back then was not to add more capacity, but build an entirely new architecture designed for data. The industry transitioned from a voice network that also carried data to a data network that also carried voice, enabling the modern internet economy we rely on today. Much of that lesson remains the same – as applications change, networks must change with them.

However, we’re seeing the cycle of reinvention being driven by a different kind of application categorized as real-time, high-bandwidth video at global scale. Unlike previous transitions, this shift is continuous and is starting to expose real strain on the network closest to the end user.

Pressure Is Building at the Edge
Historically, the default response to rising video demand has been to add more fiber. But the user experience still degrades during peak moments. Streams begin at a lower resolution to decrease startup time, and bitrates are automatically reduced when networks get congested.

During major streaming events, viewers regularly lose clarity or stability at the exact moments they care most about. These are not isolated glitches, they are symptoms of systemic, structural strain.

This constraint is most visible at the network edge—specifically in last-mile infrastructure connecting content to homes and devices. Every duplicated stream consumes capacity in a segment of the network that is already heavily loaded. At scale, continuing to rely on this level of delivery inefficiency becomes hard to justify.

The Internet Has Quietly Become a Video-Heavy Data Network
The internet today is now a data network carrying video—but more accurately, it has become a network dominated by massive, simultaneous "hot" data workloads. While streaming platforms and live sports have radically reshaped traffic patterns to the point where video now represents roughly 80% of internet traffic, this structural strain isn't exclusive to video.

We see the exact same architectural bottleneck when millions of devices simultaneously pull a critical mobile update, when gaming platforms drop a massive software patch, or when autonomous vehicle fleets sync hyper-localized HD maps.

However, nowhere is this delivery challenge more acute, or visible, than during a massive live sporting event. The core issue stems from an architectural reliance on a one-to-one delivery model (unicast) for content that is inherently one-to-many (multicast).

Under the traditional unicast model, every viewer receives an individual stream from the content delivery network, even when millions of people are watching the exact same frame at the exact same millisecond. Conversely, multicast is a one-to-many model, where a single transmission can be distributed efficiently to all recipients at once. Live sports are naturally shared experiences. Forcing networks to duplicate and deliver the same stream millions of times over severely strains the access networks closest to the consumer.

The Next Evolution of Internet Infrastructure
Stepping into the next phase of internet infrastructure requires recognizing that not all traffic should be treated equally. We must acknowledge that video is now the dominant workload on the network, and that live, high-demand content requires a specialized approach.

As video continues to dominate global traffic, pressure on today’s legacy delivery model will only intensify. The opportunity ahead lies in aligning network architecture with actual consumption habits to eliminate unnecessary duplication where demand is highest.

This means shifting away from repetitive one-to-one delivery toward more efficient distribution models where a single transmission can be broadcasted across the edge, rather than recreated millions of times over. Streaming the World Cup isn’t breaking the internet. It’s revealing that the internet has already evolved into a data network carrying video, and its physical architecture must now evolve to match.

ATLANTA—Gray Media, Inc. has announced that it has concluded a deal with American Spirit Media, LLC (“American Spirit”) to acquire its six television stations for $50 million.

The deal builds on longstanding relationships between Gray and the stations. For more than a decade, Gray (and its predecessor company, Raycom Media) provided back-office services to five of these stations as well as local news to four of these stations.

The American Spirit being acquired are:

• DMA 81, Toledo, Ohio, WUPW (Fox)
• DMA 100, Jackson, Miss., WDBD (Fox)
• DMA 125, Wilmington, N.C., WSFX-TV (Fox)
• DMA 126, Columbus, Ga., WXTX (Fox)
• DMA 149, Wichita Falls, Texas, KAUZ-TV (CBS)
• DMA 176, Lake Charles, La., KVHP (Fox)

Gray also announced that the parties completed the first of two closings of the transaction with Gray paying $40 million to American Spirit and commencing a limited local management agreement for the stations. The consideration for the first of the two closings was funded with a portion of the proceeds of a private placement of $70 million of aggregate principal amount of the Company’s 7.250% Senior Secured First Lien Notes due 2033, which was completed on June 30, 2026.

As of May 15, 2026, prior to the deal, Gray owned 117 full-power television markets that collectively reach approximately 37% of US television households.

WUPPERTAL, Germany—Riedel Communications says it's expanding its partnership with SKAARHOJ, a Danish provider of tactile controllers for media production, bringing official SKAARHOJ panel support to SimplyLive production workflows. Enabled through the latest SimplyLive 2.1 release, the integration expands SimplyLive’s control options with a tactile switcher panel experience, complementing both its touchscreen interface and existing RCU-based workflows.

The integration addresses customer demand for dedicated hardware control in live production environments where operators want the speed, confidence, and familiarity of a classic switcher panel, Riedel said. With SKAARHOJ panels, SimplyLive users can control key live production functions such as source switching, program output switching, transitions, auxiliary output control, keying, graphics, and macros.

“SKAARHOJ was the obvious partner for this integration because of their strong reputation for high-quality products designed with the user in mind,” said Paul Macklin, Senior Product Manager, SimplyLive at Riedel Communications. “Their collaborative approach allowed us to tailor the solution around the specific needs of SimplyLive operators, especially in single-operator environments where speed, confidence, and ergonomics are essential.”

This operator-focused approach extends beyond the panel integration itself. To support fast deployment, Riedel and SKAARHOJ said they provide a curated starting configuration that helps customers get up and running quickly while preserving the flexibility to adapt the setup to their preferred production workflows.

“We're excited to expand our collaboration with Riedel through the SimplyLive integration,” said Kasper Skårhøj, CEO, SKAARHOJ. “Having previously integrated with Riedel SmartPanels and MediorNet, this is another great example of how our technologies can come together to create new and flexible workflows. While the solution is tailored for the Master Key 48, users can choose any SKAARHOJ panel that best fits their production needs.”

SimplyLive 2.1 introduces official support for SKAARHOJ panels through a gRPC API, enabling responsive communication between the panel and the SimplyLive ViBox application. Alongside a range of other enhancements and new features, the release also adds a new Venue Gateway license for SimplyLive Production Suite Flex customers, allowing the same server hardware to support Venue Gateway applications in addition to All-in-One, Replay, Ingest, and Review workflows.

Additional SimplyLive resources, including the curated starting configuration, are available via the MyRiedel portal. Further guidance on SimplyLive 2.1 workflows, including instructions for implementing the SKAARHOJ configuration, is available in the SimplyLive 2.1 user guide.

WASHINGTON—Broadcast Management Group (BMG), a leader in live production, creative services, and broadcast managed services, has appointed Kathy Samuels as director of creative services.

In her new role, Samuels will lead BMG's growing Creative Services division, helping clients develop, execute, and distribute live broadcasts, streaming channels, sports programming, brand activations, live events, enterprise communications and audience experiences that combine compelling storytelling with Tier 1 broadcast production execution, the company said..

Over the past year, Samuels was strategic accounts manager for BMG, overseeing key client relationships across sports, entertainment, media and enterprise organizations. In that role, she worked closely with clients to align creative strategy, production workflows, and operational execution while supporting some of BMG's most visible and complex initiatives, the company said.

“Kathy brings an exceptional combination of creative leadership, production expertise, and show format development,” BMG CEO Todd Mason said. “Her experience launching shows, building show formats, building content teams, developing talent and leading complex productions makes her uniquely qualified to lead our expanding Creative Services division as we continue expanding our work across sports, entertainment, financial services, news, and enterprise clients.”

Samuels has spent nearly 30 years as a producer, showrunner, media executive and content strategist across broadcast television, digital media and live production. She has helped launch such nationally recognized programs as Access Hollywood, Rachael Ray, and Katie, while holding leadership roles at NBC, CBS, ABC, Hasbro, Joyus and other media organizations.

A Daytime Emmy, Telly and Davey Award-winning producer and showrunner, Samuels has built a reputation for creating content and audience experiences that connect across television, streaming, live events, branded content and emerging media platforms, BMG said. Her expertise spans creative development, talent strategy, show creation, content production, studio production, and multiplatform storytelling, according to the company.

MELVILLE, N.Y.—Chyron has launched “Chyron Academy,” which the company describes as a “ground-up redesign” of the company’s product-training platform. Built on a fully custom, Chyron-branded learning experience, the new Academy replaces Chyron’s previous training system based on a third-party platform and launches with learning content covering the latest version of PRIME, Chyron’s flagship real-time broadcast graphics platform.

Chyron Academy is designed to serve two audiences at once: customers and freelancers training on PRIME for the first time, and longtime Chyron users looking to become experts in the platform’s latest capabilities. Over the life of the previous legacy training program, more than 3,700 broadcast professionals registered to train on Chyron products, earning nearly 1,900 belt certifications across PRIME, PAINT, and Click Effects, including more than 60 Certified PRIME Black Belts worldwide. Chyron has transitioned that community to the new platform, migrating more than 950 current learners, along with the full certification history for every learner.

The redesigned Academy centers on a PRIME Belt certification path, taking learners through four levels: Yellow (Designer Basics), Green (Intermediate), Blue (Advanced), and Black (Expert), with earned badges and completion dates appearing on each learner’s dashboard as a visual record of skill mastery. Every course module pairs a demo with a hands-on, full-screen simulation, so learners practice real PRIME workflows, such as building a lower-third graphic step by step, rather than passively watching video.

An animated progress dial fills as learners complete demos, simulations, and quizzes, with a belt certification awarded automatically at 100 percent completion. Learners can enroll and move through the belt levels at their own pace. The program is suitable for individual learners, or supervisors or instructors can monitor the progress of their teams.The platform launches with five published PRIME courses spanning roughly 150 hands-on lessons, demos, simulations, and quizzes combined.

“Chyron Academy was inspired by, and has satisfied, a need we kept hearing from customers,” said Aldo Campisi, vice president of sales at Chyron for Latin America, Caribbean and French Canada. “A customer facing an end-of-life decision on their existing hardware chose Chyron, and this tool is what helped their team become experts in our workflow and our solution. That is exactly the value we set out to deliver: practical, hands-on training that gets a team productive and ready to launch on PRIME fast. Long time Chyron customers love it too. It is an effective way to bring their new hires up to speed quickly and ensure that even experienced users are fluent in everything PRIME has to offer.”

The new Academy also fully showcases the latest version of PRIME, ensuring teams train on current tools and workflows. A new Chyron LIVE production course is being added in the coming weeks to train users on Chyron’s all-in-one cloud production system for switching, graphics and illustrated replay. Additionally, training for PAINT (illustrated replay), Click Effects (venue display control), and AXIS (image creation and order management) is being re-platformed onto the new Academy, extending the same hands-on experience across Chyron’s product family.

Chyron says its Chyron Academy is also drawing interest from the academic world, with colleges and universities exploring adding PRIME training to their broadcast and media-production curricula, giving the next generation of operators job-ready skills before they enter the industry.

To mark the launch, anyone without a current PRIME trial license can claim a 90-day free trial of PRIME by logging in to the new Chyron Academy and starting a course. Access the service at academy.chyron.com.

“We originally launched Chyron Academy in 2020, with a strong commitment to ensuring that users anywhere in the world could become thoroughly fluid in the world’s most advanced live graphics platform, and that broadcasters would always have a pool of qualified users,” states Carol Bettencourt, vice president of marketing at Chyron. “We are proud of how our academy has enabled the professional development of so many people. With this new platform, we know we can deliver an even better learning experience and we welcome anyone who wants to join the growing community of Chyron experts!”

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif.—Bitcentral, a provider of enterprise software and digital media solutions for news, sports and entertainment broadcasters as well as streaming platforms, said it has sold off its traditional production and playout business to investment group Banyan Software.

Bitcentral will focus on broadcast news production, playout and workflow technology that broadcasters depend on every day, while the other company, now known as "ViewNexa," will focus on helping media companies grow, distribute and monetize digital audiences across streaming and connected platforms, the companies said.

Sam Kamel, who became CEO of Bicentral in 2024, called the move “a bold and exciting step in the company's evolution." Kamel was hired after Bitcentral announced funding from a new unidentified private investor at the time.

“By creating two dedicated companies, each gains increased clarity, leadership focus and investment capacity to accelerate innovation and better serve customers,” Kamel said. “Bitcentral continues as a trusted technology partner to some of the most important broadcast news organizations in North America. Banyan’s ownership provides a strong foundation for continued investment and innovation. For ViewNexa, this means the independence and resources to pursue high-growth market opportunities in streaming, monetization and audience engagement."

Bitcentral Founder and Chairman Fred Fourcher, who returned to Bitcentral as board chairman at the same time Kamel assumed leadership, also hailed the transaction.

“I’m incredibly proud of what we've built at Bitcentral over the past 25 years,” Fourcher said. “From the beginning, our vision was to help media organizations adapt to the changing ways content is created, managed, distributed and consumed. Over time, we built two exceptional businesses, each with its own customers, capabilities and future. This transaction allows both to move forward with renewed focus while staying true to the spirit of innovation, reliability and customer commitment that have defined Bitcentral from the start.”

Former Chief Operating Officer Sam Peterson, has become CEO of Bitcentral, leading the newly independent business. Sam Kamel continues as ViewNexa’s CEO, working with the leadership team led by General Manager Scott Alexander.

“With Banyan Software as a long-term partner, we are well positioned to invest in next-generation broadcast workflow capabilities, including cloud-based operations and emerging AI-driven tools that will shape the future of news production,” Peterson said. “Our customers will continue working with the same people, the same trusted products and the same commitment to service they expect from Bitcentral. We play a central role in the daily operations of more than 40 leading news organizations across more than 1,600 newsrooms, and we are just getting started.”

Reed Fawell, operating partner at Banyan Software, said: “Bitcentral has built a highly trusted and mission-critical technology platform that supports the daily operations of leading broadcasters. We are excited to support Sam Peterson and the Bitcentral team with a long-term investment approach focused on product strength, customer success and continued innovation. This is a business with deep customer relationships, a strong product foundation and an important role to play in the future of broadcast news operations.”

The transaction has closed and both companies are operating independently under their new structures.

About one third of the way through the 2026 FIFA World Cup and Fox Sports is assessing the first two weeks of coverage in the quadrennial tournament. As the host U.S. broadcaster, Fox Sports is working out of the International Broadcast Center at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center in Dallas, where HBS, (Host Broadcaster Services). The facility serves as HBS's global broadcast operations center for 180 broadcasters covering the tournament taking place across 16 host cities in Canada, Mexico and the USA, June 11-July 19.

As expected, the technical operations have run smoothly with the biggest challenges being pure logistics and preparing for the unexpected, according to Kevin Callahan, senior vice president of field operations and engineering for Fox Sports.

“The biggest challenge is by far the weather and travel in North America and the size and enormity of the coverage,” he said. Criss-crossing between stadiums on the west coast to the east coast in one day while managing coverage of multiple matches simultaneously is no easy task but Callahan believes the network has created the kind of memorable event that resonates with soccer fans.

“What we are bringing to the viewer is truly amazing,” he said. “We want to be where the fans are, we want to create that sense of FOMO for fans—if you're not out at the matches, you're missing the big party of this tournament.”

NEVER ENOUGH
In broadcast, one can never have enough redundancy and that philosophy extends to the World Cup like perhaps no other event, especially one played in the middle of summer when weather plays such an important role, from whether a game is played on schedule or technical or on-air talent have to travel from city to city.

“We have plans in place for every scenario that we can think of,” Callahan said. "I have a firm belief, if you have one, you have none; if you have two, you have one. So, when it comes to equipment redundancy, we have that in place. We have some personnel redundancy, but we also have backup plans when it comes to travel.”

One area that Callahan noted was the impact of construction on maintaining connections.

“It’s construction season in the summer in the U.S., particularly in northern routes, and we've certainly dealt with our fair share of fiber cuts,” Callahan said, adding that none of those cuts have resulted in the loss of signal “because of the diversity that our network engineering and architecture team has put in place.”

All matches have commentators in-venue, but Fox Sports’ studio show travels to venues across the three countries as well, giving Fox a presence inside each stadium while keeping much of the production engine in familiar facilities.

Fox Sports is leaning on its HRP (Home Run Productions) workflows for both its match and studio coverage. Upgraded for the World Cup, HRP’s REMI infrastructure is a standards-based IP workflow that uses Appear’s X platform to support both JPEG XS and low-latency HEVC on a single platform.

Although the matches themselves are produced by HBS on behalf of FIFA, Fox picks up the feed at the International Broadcast Center in Dallas and sends it to production facilities in L.A.

The link between traveling studio teams and the L.A.-based hub includes Fox’s BRISK systems, which Callahan describes as ST 2110-based flypacks that integrate with the company’s permanent facilities, with JPEG XS encoding from Appear used to support low-latency feeds from venues back to the control rooms.

In practical terms, the model allows Fox to keep the live feel of a stadium production without having to replicate the same full-scale setup in every city. Commentators and hosts can remain close to the action, while core production staff work from a consistent base.

'MASTERS OF RESILIENCY'
When the HBS opened last month, FIFA President Gianni Infantino hailed the facility as "the most technologically advanced and top of the art international broadcast center that the world has ever seen."

Callahan sang the praises of HBS as well.

“They truly are masters of resiliency and redundancy as well—they have a plan for everything,” Callahan said. “The signals that they've been able to provide us in the world have been, the signals themselves look pristine. The super slow mo replays that they've added more of this year have been fantastic and really help share the emotion of the tournament.”

Callahan was particularly happy with HBS’s increased attention to audio.

"Over the years, we've been commenting to HBS that we want more field effects—we want to hear more of what's actually going on on the pitch,” Callahan said. “One of the challenges that you face when it comes to soccer is just the sheer size of the pitch and the distance you can actually put a microphone from where the sound is coming from. HBS has done a fantastic job at being able to capture those close ball effects a lot better, and what's going on on the pitch a lot better, and I think this tournament they've nailed it more than anything.”

Since early May, Fox Sports has produced all its content in HDR, and Callahan noted the progress the network has made on the standard.

“Fox switched our entire facility to HDR for the first time, so everything that we're doing in the building is coming natively as HDR, Callahan said. “In the past, when we've done these events, [some of] our studio programming would have originated in SDR. So this is the first time that truly everything is HDR.”

Having a consistent look throughout the expanded 104-match tournament has been a goal from the first day and Callahan says HBS’s role is crucial in this respect.

“You'll be hard pressed to be able to tell the difference between one vs. the other when it comes to the quality of replays, the quality of coverage, they're all consistent, which is really what you want.”

WASHINGTON—The Library of American Broadcasting Foundation (LABF) today announced the release of a new series of pre‑produced radio and television spots as part of its “Before It Was History, It Was Broadcast” initiative supporting America’s 250th Anniversary.

The new :30 spots feature archival audio and visuals drawn from the Library of American Broadcasting Special Collection at the University of Maryland. Each piece highlights the essential role radio and television stations have played in documenting the nation’s most defining moments as they unfolded. Topics covered range from children’s programming and game shows to I Love Lucy and historic moments of national consequence.

These pre‑produced messages complement the customizable shells LABF previously released, giving stations two ways to participate in the national commemoration. The new versions are fully produced and ready for immediate on‑air use, complete with narration, archival elements, and royalty‑free music. Television spots also include patriotic visuals reflecting the campaign’s theme.

“Broadcasters have always been the trusted link between historic events and the communities they serve,” said LABF Co-Chairs Deborah Parenti and Dave “Chachi” Denes. “These spots celebrate the journalists, storytellers, and stations that have brought defining moments into America’s homes. They also showcase the incredible depth of the Library’s archival treasures.”

Stations may download the pre‑produced spots—along with the previously released customizable shells – by contacting Mary Collins, Executive Director, at Mary@LABFMedia.org or 847‑910‑8878.

Clear-com has announced that the production teams for Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! have added Clear-Com FreeSpeak wireless and Arcadia Central Station to upgrade their production communications.

Audio Masterpiece’s Gary Vahling, who has worked in the professional audio industry since the early 1990s, served as the lead systems partner for the project. Known for his meticulous preparation and hands-on testing approach, Vahling made sure the communications system was fully validated before deployment, minimizing risk and guaranteeing reliability once it reached the studio floor.

Chris Savage, technical manager and project lead for both shows, oversaw the system design and installation.

“Both shows share a control room but have stages that are effectively miles apart due to walls, pathways, and even parking lots,” Savage explained. “We needed a system that could handle extensive travel between the control room and the stages without a single dropout, and that’s exactly what we achieved.”

The production team on Wheel of Fortune requested a more flexible and channel-rich system to accommodate a technically savvy crew with increased monitoring needs. Clear-Com integrated a combination of FreeSpeak II and FreeSpeak Icon systems, leveraging Bluetooth-enabled beltpacks for maximum ease-of-use, even for executives with minimal technical experience.

For Jeopardy!, reliability and streamlined communication were equally critical in supporting the show’s fast-paced production environment, where timing, contestant coordination, and precision cueing are essential, Clear-com said. The Clear-Com setup provides dedicated wireless coverage across the stage and production areas, giving crew members instant, uninterrupted communication throughout tapings.

The system now supports 30 FreeSpeak II beltpacks and 6 Icon beltpacks for Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy!, with easy intersystem connectivity.

The upgrade also included Arcadia Central Station, allowing full interoperability with existing Dante-enabled audio networks. This approach enabled lighting and PA crews to continue using legacy FreeSpeak II beltpacks while taking advantage of FreeSpeak Icon’s advanced capabilities.

“The goal was a system that would last for years and scale with evolving production needs,” said Savage. “The team at Clear-Com, working closely with our Partners, delivered a solution that was simple and useful. From control room to stage, operators experienced zero downtime, even during high-pressure live productions.”

NBCUniversal’s Peacock and Telemundo said an average of 2.3 million viewers have watched some of their coverage of the 2026 FIFA World Cup during the competition’s first two weeks, up 277% from the same perioid during the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

Peacock and Telemundo are the exclusive Spanish-language streaming platforms for the 2026 World Cup. Fox Sports holds the English-language rights to the competition, which runs June 11 through July 19.

Through the first 40 matches, the Average Minute Audience (AMA) across Telemundo and Peacock streaming platforms has averaged 2.3 million viewers, up 277% from the same stage of the 2022 World Cup (622,000 AMA). AMA is defined as the average number of viewers watching the stream in any given minute of the telecast.

Several variables drove the viewership increase, not the least of which is that marquee live matches are being streamed during primetime as the tournament is in North America. Also, Peacock now has a much larger subscriber base at 46 million, more than double the roughly 20 million it had in 2022.

Total Audience Delivery (TAD) over the first 40 World Cup matches averaged 5.5 million viewers, up 141% from 2022. To date, 19 matches have delivered a Total Audience Delivery of more than 5 million viewers, compared to just two matches at the same point in the 2022 tournament.

TAD measures the entire audience across every single platform combined—traditional broadcast television (Telemundo), cable, and all digital streaming platforms (Peacock and apps).

The June 19 U.S.-Australia match delivered TAD of 6.8 million, up 46% from the U.S.’s second Group Stage match of FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 against England (4.7 million). The match ranks as the second most-watched U.S. Men’s FIFA World Cup match ever in Spanish.

Audience engagement remains at historic highs, with 26.2 billion total minutes consumed across Telemundo broadcast, Peacock and Telemundo streaming platforms through the first 40 matches of the tournament, already surpassing the 22 billion total minutes consumed during the entirety of FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 in Spanish, Telemundo said.

Fox Sports, the host broadcaster for the World Cup in the U.S. has also reported record ratings in the early days of the event, with viewership of 18.4 million for the first U.S. men’s game against Paraguay, making it the most-watched World Cup in U.S. history. The second U.S. men’s match against Australia attracted 14.78 million overall viewers on Fox.

The 2026 FIFA World Cup continues across Fox, Telemundo, Universo, Peacock and the Telemundo app through July 19.

McLEAN, Va.—Tegna has elevated four longtime executives to senior vice president, expanding their leadership roles in legal, content, human resources and finance.

Marc Sher was elevated to senior vice president and general counsel, overseeing all legal matters, including compliance, contracts, litigation, regulatory matters and risk management. Sher, who joined Tegna in 2013, was most recently vice president, associate general counsel and secretary.

Raquel Amparo advanced to senior vice president of content, leading Tegna’s content strategy, creation and content partnerships across platforms. Amparo, an Emmy-winning journalist and Kneeland Fellow with more than 20 years of experience, had been vice president of content for Tegna’s Texas markets.

Melissa Jones was named senior vice president of human resources, tasked with directing Tegna’s people strategy, including talent acquisition, employee relations, compensation and benefits and organizational development. Jones joined Tegna in 2016 as VP of human resources and leads the HR business partner team across Tegna’s 64 stations in 51 markets.

And Pamela Long was promoted to senior vice president of finance, managing Tegna’s financial operations, including budgeting, forecasting, financial reporting and capital planning. Most recently VP of finance and operations, Long has been with Tegna since 2015.

“Each of these individuals has a proven record of measurable results built on experience, strong instincts and sound judgment,” CEO Patrick Paolini said. “As our leadership team continues to grow, these are the qualities that will shape Tegna’s future.”

Nexstar Media Group acquired Tegna in March, but the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California on April 17 issued a “Hold Separate Order” delaying the integration of the two companies as antitrust challenges work their way through the courts.