For four days in September, the global media and entertainment industry came together at RAI Amsterdam for IBC 2026. The event welcomed more than 41,000 visitors from 170 countries, bringing together broadcasters, operators, technology providers, content companies and partners from across the media and entertainment ecosystem. 

Across the conference and exhibition, this year's conversations focused on some of the industry's biggest questions, including AI in practice, changing business models, live sports, content discovery, security, trust and content provenance.

For Alpha Networks, IBC 2026 was an opportunity to continue conversations with customers and partners, share what we have been working on and, more importantly, listen to what operators, broadcasters and media companies are trying to solve next.

What stood out to us was a shift towards a more practical conversation. The industry has no shortage of new technology. The challenge is making it work together, at scale, without adding unnecessary complexity for the teams operating it or the viewers using it.

Here are four themes that stood out to us at IBC 2026.

AI was everywhere at IBC. But the conversation is moving beyond what AI can do to a more practical question: what happens with the output?

In video streaming, generating metadata, recommendations or audience insights is only useful if those outputs can actually be trusted and put to work. A platform managing thousands of titles across multiple sources, languages and formats, for example, needs enriched metadata to be accurate and consistent enough to support search, discovery and editorial workflows.

The same principle applies to audience and platform data. Viewing behavior can inform a targeted engagement campaign. Usage data can feed a BI platform or data lake. Content and metadata can be distributed to another platform or partner.

The video platform shouldn't be where data goes to stay. It needs to work with the rest of the technology stack.

This is one of the principles behind Tucano, Alpha Networks'  video content and data hub. Tucano brings together content aggregation, enrichment and management, while allowing content and platform data to connect with external systems through connectors.

At IBC 2026, we introduced OneSignal as Tucano's first Data Sync connector. OneSignal is a customer engagement platform that can use events and user data from a video service to support targeted push and engagement campaigns. The value is not in adding another destination for data, but in making the existing technology ecosystem work more effectively together.

And this applies to content too. Alpha Networks' Tucano can export prepared content and metadata to external platforms, while Data Sync connectors allow platform and user data to flow into other systems.

AI may generate the output, but the wider ecosystem determines what that output can actually do.

Viewers don't think about platforms. They simply expect the service to work wherever they are.

Someone might discover a football match on their phone, check the schedule on a laptop and watch the game on TV that evening. They don't expect to encounter three completely different experiences along the way.

That makes consistency across screens more than a design consideration. It is part of the product itself.

The challenge is not simply making an application available on more devices. It is maintaining a coherent experience while adapting the interface to how people actually use each screen.

This is where Gecko, Alpha Networks' end-to-end white-label video platform, comes in. Built on Tucano, Gecko combines the backend capabilities needed to operate a video service with the applications viewers actually use.

At this year's IBC, we completed the TV side of that experience with DeltaUX TV, the TV interface within Alpha Networks' DeltaUX user experience framework. Available on Android TV, Samsung and LG, it brings the same design language used across web and mobile to the big screen, with features including live channels, VOD, EPG, catch-up and nPVR.

The broader lesson goes beyond any one product: the service should feel like one service, regardless of the screen.

For operators, scaling a video service isn't only about handling more viewers or traffic.

As services grow across markets, the operational layer becomes increasingly important: managing connected devices, deploying software updates, adapting services to local requirements and handling different commercial configurations.

Imagine operating hundreds of thousands of operator-branded devices across several markets. A platform that can handle the audience but makes device management, updates or regional configuration difficult can still create significant operational friction.

This is why operational capabilities increasingly need to be considered part of the platform itself.

Gecko, Alpha Networks' end-to-end white-label video platform, is designed with this side of scale in mind. Its capabilities include operator device management for connected TV fleets, rules-based OTA updates for controlled software rollouts, and Service Plans that can be assigned by user segment. This allows operators to manage different regional or commercial configurations without creating a separate service portal for every market. Gecko also supports Android TV Operator Tier, allowing operators to deliver a fully branded TV experience at the device level, including native voice control.

The takeaway is simple: true scale is not simply serving more viewers. It's making a larger service easier to operate.

Nothing exposes the strengths and weaknesses of a streaming platform quite like a major live event.

The 2026 FIFA World Cup was a recent example of the scale involved. Audiences move between devices, demand can spike around key moments, and expectations for quality are immediate. When huge audiences care about the same moment at the same time, there is very little room for operational surprises.

But reliability during a major event is not something that can be solved at the moment the audience arrives. It starts well before the first whistle: understanding expected demand, testing critical workflows, monitoring performance, preparing failover and making sure teams know how to respond when something changes. During the event itself, real-time visibility becomes just as important as the underlying infrastructure.

This year's IBC's live sports discussions reflected this broader reality. Stability remains the starting point, but today's audiences also expect richer experiences around the live stream, including additional content, highlights, statistics and multiple ways to engage with an event.

The technology has to work when the audience suddenly cares the most.

IBC 2026 gave us plenty to think about, but the conversations don't stop when the show floor closes.

The coming months will put many of these themes into practice. AI will continue to evolve, viewing experiences will keep expanding across screens, and operators and media companies will look for ways to scale their services without adding layers of operational complexity.

For us, the focus is on helping make that evolution more practical: connecting content and data, simplifying the management of video services, and building experiences that can adapt as audiences, platforms and business needs change.

The next chapter of streaming won't be defined by one technology. It will be shaped by how well the different pieces work together.

We're looking forward to seeing how these ideas evolve and continuing the conversations that started at IBC. Contact us today and explore what’s next for your video service with our team.