Time again for a look into the future as to what we can expect in 2026. Of course, I am not a clairvoyant, and you may agree or disagree with my list. But I hope my predictions—based on my perspective from covering the industry—give you something to think about:
No. 1: U.S. broadcasters muddle through another year of incremental steps towards a 3.0 future. With no date certain for 1.0 shut-off and the freedom to make the switch whenever they think best, the tiptoe towards NextGen TV will continue.
No. 2: The Digital Rights Management (DRM) faceoff between the ATSC 3.0
Security Authority, some viewers and some CE companies over 3.0 content
will be resolved—most likely leaving all sides a bit disappointed but for different reasons.
No. 3: Agentic AI makes its presence felt in the broadcast back office. Workflow efficiency has been the mantra of TV production, news and distribution for decades. With the help of agentic AI, many back-office processes will be more fully automated.
No. 4: 5G Broadcast proponents in the U.S. broadcast industry will continue to make their case but won’t find the success they seek.
No. 5: Re-evaluation of the role public cloud plays in media workflows will continue. Some media organizations will decide to repatriate their valuable content from the public cloud in favor of using a combination of cloud and their own private storage.
No. 6: “Hybrid” will be the word to watch in 2026, whether it refers to media storage, production or distribution.
No. 7: Media Exchange Layer (MXL) will continue to garner industry attention and support for its development, as broadcasters and other media creators look
to one day leverage software-defined media workflows that streamline operations and address interoperability issues.
No. 8: Stations and station groups will begin to get their arms around the best that the “creator economy” has to offer, especially when paired with the content they already create, leading to a variety of benefits for broadcasters—perhaps most importantly, occupying more mindshare among younger members of the public.
No. 9: The funding nightmare public broadcasting is living through will have a bit of a silver lining for the rest of the industry, as displaced technical workers and engineers will create a talent pool commercial broadcasters can tap to help address their engineering aging crisis.
No. 10: The Department of Transportation-funded Broadcast Positioning System (BPS) will demonstrate the strength of the solution as a relatively affordable backup for GPS—especially when it comes to precise timing—and will turn heads among those responsible for national security.
That’s a wrap. Here’s wishing everyone a great 2026!
