Artificial intelligence I in media has moved well beyond a collection of tools. Capabilities such as metadata tagging, QC automation, transcript generation, and recommendation engines now shape decisions across the content chain. As these systems grow more connected, AI increasingly acts as the operating layer that routes content, applies policy, and manages routine tasks.

The industry is shifting from narrow automation toward agentic systems that can understand context, pursue goals, and execute multi-step processes within clear editorial and policy boundaries. Routine content can flow automatically while sensitive material is held for human review. The result is faster, more consistent operations — paired with new expectations for transparency and trust.

How End-to-End AI Workflows Work Today — and Why They’re Now Essential
Broadcasters tend to begin one of two ways: solving individual pain points or linking teams and systems into continuous workflows. Both paths have reshaped operations.

Individual High‑ROI Tasks
For many organizations, the first gains come from targeted use cases. Smarter metadata tagging improves archive access, personalized recommendations and artwork help keep viewers engaged, churn prediction sharpens retention efforts, and load forecasting prepares systems for major events without guesswork. Automated compliance checks flag inappropriate content, while QC tools catch frame-level issues.

Crucially, AI now reaches upstream into pre-production, where agentic systems orchestrate automated script breakdowns, generate storyboards, and optimize complex production schedules before a single frame is shot.

Shift to Workflow Orchestration
As organizations connect individual AI tasks, the operating layer starts to take shape. Instead of siloed workflows, agentic systems act as the connective tissue between the newsroom, production, advertising, and operations. For example, AI now orchestrates contextual advertising by analyzing video frame-by-frame for hyper-targeted dynamic ad insertions (DAI). Content moves according to policy, not manual handoffs, and the system improves as teams refine rules and review outputs.

These orchestration models can even show “self‑healing” behavior, with agents monitoring traffic patterns, detecting early signs of congestion, and adjusting routes automatically. Human teams retain oversight for judgment calls and editorial nuance, guided by clear governance on when to intervene.

Some broadcasters have already taken orchestration further. Sky Italia uses an AI-driven delivery platform that routes video data dynamically across its network, ensuring buffer-free 4K streams for millions of viewers. By anticipating demand spikes, the system reduces egress and storage costs while improving viewer experience.

As distribution expands across regions, platforms, and accessibility requirements, manual versioning and monitoring cannot scale. Three domains show how AI has become foundational:

1. Real-time Monitoring and Operational Intelligence
   Operations teams oversee thousands of feeds at once, and AI helps surface issues that would otherwise go unnoticed — mis-triggered graphics, muted audio, compliance violations, subtle sync drift. In one recent global sports broadcast, AI detected graphic rendering errors on mobile devices early, prompting an automatic switch to a backup encoder before viewers notice anything. AI‑driven forecasting also helps teams scale resources for major events, reducing the need to over‑provision and improving resilience during peak demand.
   
2. Localization remains one of the most labor‑intensive parts of media operations. AI accelerates translation, subtitling, compliance edits, metadata generation, and platform specific packaging. It also preserves sync and ensures consistent output across formats and languages. With accessibility expectations rising, AI systems can automatically identify non-speech audio cues like "[rain patters]" or "[door creaks]" and support high‑volume production of Subtitles for the Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing (SDH).
   
   Dubbing has also improved significantly. Newer models preserve tone, pacing, and emotional nuance rather than merely converting dialogue. Netflix has seen completion rates for global titles increase after adopting emotionally aligned dubbing, demonstrating how performance‑aware tools can improve viewer engagement. Humans still guide cultural context and oversee less‑common languages, but AI now handles much of the repetitive work that slows production.
   
3. Sports Logic, Highlight Generation, and Resource Optimization
   Sports broadcasting shows how quickly AI is evolving. Instead of generic highlight packages, AI now identifies sport‑specific moments — a goal, three-pointer, or slapshot — and assembles clips for social distribution instantly. This logic also powers generative personalization, as seen when NBC Universal used AI orchestration to create millions of highly personalized daily Olympic recaps. These same systems forecast audience surges for major matches and adjust cloud and network resources accordingly – helping maintain stream quality while cutting infrastructure costs.

Securing AI-Native Operations: Risks and the Trust Stack
As AI becomes central to production, the risks grow too. Synthetic anchors, fabricated promos, tampered clips, and impersonations of public figures can erode credibility. Another challenge comes from contaminated or synthetic content entering production pipelines, where it becomes harder to detect and more costly to fix.

A stronger approach builds trust into each asset. A practical trust stack includes:

• Digital watermarking — durable, invisible identifiers that survive editing, compression, and screen capture.
• Provenance frameworks — cryptographically signed manifests capturing an asset’s origin and transformations. Broadcasters such as France Télévisions and ARD have begun daily use of C2PA protocols to safeguard VOD authenticity.
• Authentication — hardware-backed proof at capture that confirms material comes from a trusted source, as seen in Sony’s latest C2PA-enabled camera systems.

For this to work, trust signals must be added at ingest and persist through localization, editing, transcodes, and multi‑partner distribution. Challenges remain, including metadata stripping, uneven adoption, social-media black holes, and key-management burdens. However, without these layers, AI-native operations carry significant brand and legal risk.

A Pragmatic 12-Month Plan
Adopting AI effectively starts with a focus on viewer impact and measurable outcomes. Choose one or two high-value problems — manual bottlenecks, missed QC anomalies, dubbing throughput, churn — and link them to clear KPIs such as time-to-air reductions, versioning-throughput targets, or improvements in detection-to-resolution times.

A brief workflow audit will surface quick wins, especially where AI already functions as an informal orchestrator. From there, lightweight governance helps clarify risk ownership, documents human-override paths for agentic systems, and anticipates rising expectations for explainability. Procurement should include questions about provenance and authentication support so integrity signals travel with each asset. Finally, investing in skills helps editorial and technical teams shape and evaluate outputs rather than carry out repetitive work.

What Success Looks Like in 3–5 Years
Recent moves, like Netflix’s acquisition of Interpositive AI, prove tier-1 media companies are now embedding AI directly into their core infrastructure as an operating layer. Broadcasters that thrive won’t bolt AI onto legacy workflows; they’ll operate inside agentic, policy-driven systems that learn from outcomes, route work fluidly between humans and machines, and embed trust by default.

As these systems mature, each output improves the next, KPIs guide decisions, and consistency scales globally. The earliest deployments already show these benefits, and they will increasingly define industry expectations in the years ahead.

PARIS—Viaccess-Orca (VO) and Broadpeak have announced that they are providing Israel's leading telecommunications company Cellcom with an end-to-end solution offering super-low latency for live sports streaming over OTT STBs. 

Using the solution from VO and Broadpeak, Cellcom can deliver an outstanding quality of experience to subscribers, with latency as low as 3 seconds, during major live sports events, the companies said. 

"Premium live sports events attract record audiences, and we needed a reliable solution to ensure our viewers can watch the games in as close to real time as possible," Gil Hershberg, CTO of Cellcom TV. "We chose to partner with VO and Broadpeak because of their extensive technical innovation and experience in providing cutting-edge solutions for exceptional-quality live sports streaming. We have been able to achieve unparalleled low latency during the latest World Cup, improving our subscribers' quality of experience and overall satisfaction."

The end-to-end solution used by Cellcom features VO's Secure Video Player (VO Player), a unique multiplatform secure player that supports HLS, MSS, DASH, and CMAF streaming formats to provide a best-in-class user experience across all devices, the companies said.

VO Player is integrated with Broadpeak's BkS350 Origin Packager, which combines just-in-time packaging with caching to reduce the need for encoding and storage resources. Perfect timing synchronization between the VO Player and Broadpeak's Origin Packager through unmanaged commercial networks (i.e., CDNs) ensures low-latency video streaming, the companies explained. 

"Low latency is critical during live sports events," said Philippe Léonetti, CEO at Viaccess-Orca. "Teaming up with Broadpeak, we're thrilled to provide Cellcom with a secure solution for low-latency live sports streaming. What's especially innovative about our end-to-end solution is its ability to reduce latency down to 3 seconds on 4K TVs in the living room, providing sports fans with the ultimate viewing experience."

"We are proud to support Cellcom's OTT offering providing a compelling user experience," said Jacques Le Mancq, CEO at Broadpeak. "During a live sports event, when traffic explodes, the combination of VO and Broadpeak's best-of-breed solutions ensures a flawless streaming experience for end users consuming content on OTT networks."

More information about VO's solutions is available at www.viaccess-orca.com. More information about Broadpeak solutions can be found at https://broadpeak.tv.

PARIS—Viaccess-Orca a provider of OTT and TV platforms, content protection, and advanced data solutions, and Ateme, a developer of video compression, delivery, and streaming solutions have teamed up to launch “Personal Live Channels,” a new service that simplifies the creation of VOD-to-live and personalized live channels with targeted ads. It analyzes usage data, viewing preferences, and subscriber consumption patterns, services to help content owners, broadcasters, and service providers boost viewer engagement, reduce churn, and increase monetization, the companies said.

"We're thrilled to team up with Viaccess-Orca and redefine the linear TV experience," said Ahmed Swidan, Director of Personalized TV at Ateme. "One of the greatest challenges for viewers today is finding what to watch. With this new service, we're enabling viewers to discover the most relevant content in a live watch mode, keeping them watching longer and increasing monetization opportunities for our customers. Viewers can sit back, relax, and enjoy several 'For You' live channels with their favorite shows back to back. No doubt these personal channels will increase loyalty to the service."

The Personal Live Channels service is powered by Ateme's NEA solutions for streaming, including server-side ad insertion (SSAI) technology integrated with VO's AI-based content discovery and Targeted TV Advertising solution. The Ateme NEA range includes a cloud-native, containerized solution that allows service and content providers to originate live channels from VOD and catch-up archives. All VOD-to-live channels, personal and non-personal, are monetization-ready by combining VO's Targeted Advertising solution with Ateme's SSAI technology, enabling accurate and seamless delivery of targeted ads within the VOD-to-live channels.

VO's content discovery solution enables service providers to gain deeper insights into viewers' behavior and preferences, enabling them to go beyond routine content recommendations, according to the company. VO's solution is driven by AI analytics, allowing service providers to accurately segment audiences and fully monetize first-party usage data. Using the VOD-to-live service, service providers can deliver custom-made channels based on viewers' moods or true personal channels based on viewers' usage data, simulating the effortless lean-back approach of linear TV.

"The Personal Live Channel service is an innovative step forward for video delivery," said Dror Mangel, Director of Data-Driven Product Management, Viaccess-Orca. "Collaborating with Ateme, we have solved viewers' paradox of having too many content choices. And we have offered service providers and content owners many more opportunities to display ads, giving them higher revenue potential."

Viaccess-Orca will demonstrate the Personal Live Channels service at IBC2022, Sept. 9-12 at stand 1.A51 and Ateme will showcase the service in stand 1.D71.

PARIS—Viaccess-Orca (VO) and ATEME have announced a contribution watermarking solution with a pay-per-use business model that eliminates the complex pricing traditionally associated with watermarking and in the process enables faster technology adoption.

"Piracy is evolving. Hackers are exploiting new techniques to illegally access and redistribute video content, and the industry needs an accurate, scalable, and cost-efficient solution to identify the source of leaks," said Mathieu Harel, product director of watermarking at Viaccess-Orca. "Collaborating with ATEME, we've developed a smarter method for tracking piracy: one that focuses on the full content path as opposed to just the end points. With our solution, content owners and providers can protect their content and revenues in a way that was never before imaginable."

As part of the solution, VO's software-based dynamic watermarking technology is embedded and ready to use within IRDs and encoders from ATEME, enabling content owners and providers to precisely identify the source of video piracy leaks within various distribution channels.

VO's dynamic watermarking technology features multiple, dynamic algorithms with the ability to track and change watermarks in real time. As content owners distribute live content to multiple affiliates, the solution tracks its path through different channels — including satellite and IP — injecting an invisible watermark on the video at each distribution point. The solution offers a portal to VO's Anti-Piracy Center, where content leaks are closely monitored and then quickly identified so that content owners can fight back against piracy, the companies said. 

The new solution's pay-per-use business model eliminates licensing, maintenance, and service fees, allowing content owners and providers to pay for contribution watermarking technology only when they use it. The dynamic watermarking technology is software-based, allowing content owners and providers to scale the new solution rapidly as they address piracy concerns, the companies explained. 

"By 2022 the cost of online video piracy is expected to reach $52 billion, and this problem is only going to get worse without an effective solution," said Julien Mandel, solution marketing senior director at ATEME. "Teaming up with Viaccess-Orca, an industry leader in content protection, we've created a free solution that liberates content owners and providers from sizing their network, so that they can focus only on tracking the path of leaks throughout the distribution workflow. Before this, content providers were limited to only identifying the end point of leaked content, so this solution is a real game-changer for the industry."

The companies also noted that the new solution supports BISS-CA encryption, an open protocol that enables real-time entitlement management for content streams over any network. When used in conjunction with dynamic watermarking, BISS-CA simplifies content owners' ability to trace the source of illegal streams and safeguard their content, making this new watermarking solution especially advantageous for live sports streaming applications.

More information about VO and the new contribution watermarking solution is available here. 

PARIS—Viaccess-Orca (VO) has announced that PCCW Media in Hong Kong is using its VO Secure Player to offer an innovative new "Watch Party" feature for its Now TV customers.

During the ongoing UEFA EURO 2020 football matches, sports fans subscribing to PCCW’s Now TV can watch live matches while simultaneously interacting with their Watch Party group through video chat. 

"Live sports streaming is a competitive market, and it is critical for service providers to stay on top of emerging trends to drive better viewer engagement,” explained Ms. Belinda Chan, head of technology at PCCW Media, which offers Hong Kong’s leading pay TV service, Now TV. “With VO Secure Player, we can confidently bring our new Watch Party feature to subscribers, offering them a one-of-a-kind viewing experience. The VO Secure Player also enables real-time synchronization of premium content across all connected devices in the Watch Party group for a seamless experience." 

Now TV subscribers can join a Watch Party on Now Player iOS/Android App and Web. The VO Secure Player is embedded with Watch Together technology from Sceenic, a leading provider of interactive viewing experience solutions. 

The VO Secure Player provides real-time synchronization of live video across multiple connected devices, including mobile, tablets, and PCs, allowing users to hear comments and see reactions from their watch party group, the company reported. 

"Now TV sets a great example of how a media entertainment company can deliver exceptional social experiences to viewers via innovative technology to enhance overall viewing experience during this challenging pandemic period," said Dokyung Lee, vice president of sales, APAC at Viaccess-Orca. "The VO Secure Player plays a pivotal role in Now TV's Watch Party service, and we are delighted to accompany Now TV on this journey to bring a unique, seamless viewing experience to sports fans." 

More information about Viaccess-Orca and its solutions is available at www.viaccess-orca.com. 

LAS VEGAS—With an eye toward giving TV providers a way to safely and effectively distribute their content to users, Viaccess-Orca has a trio of products that it will be featuring at the 2019 NAB Show.

The first is VO’s end-to-end, cloud-based TV as a Service (TVaaS), a system that allows operators to manage, publish, personalize and monetize content on multiple devices. TVaaS offers a feature-rich service-delivery platform with content protection and DRM capabilities; the VO secure video player for VOD and live content; customizable white-label TV apps; analytics dashboards; and a search-analysis tool for content rights acquisition.

Looking to protect customers, VO will also showcase its next-generation suite of anti-piracy services that help combat illegal streaming. In addition, the company’s real-time DRM system has security analytic capabilities provided by the VO anti-piracy center.

VO rounds out its offerings with a product developed in partnership with Anevia, an ultra-low-latency live streaming device. Based on CMAF, the product features an encoder, origin packager and CDN from Anevia and the secure video player from VO. VO says that the product allows for viewers to get live streaming from any device with less than five seconds of delay.

A couple of VO executives are also scheduled to make presentations during the conference. Benoit Brieussel, product marketing and business development director, will present “CMAF: How to Reduce Live Latency and Use a Single Stream to Address Multiple Devices” on April 9. Carlos Ramos, vice president of sales and business development, will take part in a panel, “How Can Big Data and Analytics Improve the TV Experience,” on April 10.

Viaccess-Orca’s booth will be SU9226.

To register for the NAB Show, visit www.nabshow.com.

PARIS—Viaccess-Orca is setting sail with its Voyage TV Everywhere as a Service, a cloud-based OTT/TVE service that simplifies multiscreen service delivery, resulting in increased flexibility and faster service launch times for operators. The Voyage TVaaS, which runs on Amazon Web Services cloud infrastructure, is integrated with Akamai’s CDN and AWS’ CloudFront.

Voyage TVaaS manages the entire content preparation and distribution workflow of the multiscreen environment. With security for any device, the Voyage TVaaS can help operators distribute content to STBs, tablets, smartphones and other connected devices based on DRM technologies, including Microsoft PlayReady, Widevine, and Viaccess-Orca’s proprietary DRM.

In addition, the new service also includes Voyage Apps, which offers personalized apps and content discovery tools for content across all devices.

Viaccess-Orca powers the Voyage TVaaS with its RiGHTv service delivery platform, COMPASS content discovery and personalization platform, and Connected Sentinel DRM, including Viaccess-Orca’s secure video player.

Viaccess-Orca is providing free trials of Voyage TVaaS for pay-TV operators and content providers through www.tvaas.com. The trial includes access to the management console, iPhone and iPad mobile apps, 50GB of storage, 20 hours of video streaming, and set-up for 10 subscribers and up to 20 devices.