What Is the Future Of Broadcast Tech?
Written by Jade Page, Head of Media Relations at B2B Tech PR Agency GingerMay.
If NAB Show 2026 revealed where broadcast technology is heading, MPTS confirmed which trends are gathering real commercial momentum. Together, the two events showed an industry moving beyond experimentation towards practical innovation, and that shift has important implications for how technology companies communicate their value.
For the last several years, conversations around broadcast technology have often swung between extremes: either AI was going to replace entire workflows overnight, or traditional broadcasters were supposedly facing extinction at the hands of creators and digital platforms. But the conversations emerging from NAB and MPTS painted a far more nuanced, and ultimately more optimistic, picture. As the industry now turns its attention to IBC 2026, the conversation is no longer about disruption for disruption’s sake, but about practical innovation and sustainable growth.
AI Grows Up: From Experimentation To Application
AI is now enabling faster production cycles, enhancing creativity, and even supporting marketing workflows without undermining trust in content. For communications teams, this opens up richer storytelling opportunities such as case studies, real-world outcomes, and tangible ROI.
The takeaway? The AI story is no longer theoretical, it’s operational. And that’s an exciting place to be. For technology vendors, this changes the communications challenge. Journalists, analysts, and buyers are no longer interested in AI claims alone, they want customer evidence, measurable outcomes and real deployment stories.
That also means that whereas 12 months ago, being AI-powered was often enough to secure attention, but now you need more. Differentiation depends on demonstrating tangible outcomes: faster editing workflows, more efficient asset management, streamlined live production, improved discoverability, or smarter cloud orchestration.
The Era Of Siloed Systems Is Ending?
If there was one theme that cut across almost every conversation both sides of the Atlantic, it was interoperability. The era of siloed systems is ending, replaced by a demand for open, connected ecosystems built on APIs and vendor-agnostic frameworks.
For broadcast technology vendors, this represents both a challenge and an opportunity. The challenge is that products can no longer exist in isolation. The opportunity lies in positioning solutions as part of a broader ecosystem, not just communicating what a product does, but how it integrates into increasingly complex customer workflows.
Today, customers increasingly expect flexibility, modularity and interoperability as standard. Buyers are designing workflows that combine best-in-class solutions across multiple vendors, cloud environments and production models.
The Creator Economy Takes Centre Stage
Equally striking across both NAB and MPTS was the rise of the creator economy as a central industry conversation rather than a side-stage trend.
NAB organisers reported a 140% increase in registered content creators attending the show compared to 2025. Meanwhile, MPTS 2026 introduced an entirely new Creator Hub focused on digital studios, influencers, monetisation strategies and creator-led production models. This reflects a structural shift in who broadcast technology is being built for.
What’s particularly interesting is that the line between broadcast and creator technology continues to blur. Increasingly, the same demands exist across both markets: cloud-based collaboration, remote production, efficient live streaming, AI-assisted workflows and cost-effective scalability.
The creator economy is no longer viewed as operating outside the professional media ecosystem. It is now actively influencing product roadmaps, investment priorities and messaging strategies across the sector.
For communications teams, this means messaging can no longer speak solely to traditional broadcasters. Increasingly, vendors need narratives that resonate across enterprise media organisations, production companies, and professional creators alike.
Convergence Is The New Normal
One of the most striking aspects of NAB 2026 in particular, was the sense that industry boundaries are dissolving.
Broadcasters are thinking like tech companies. Creators are operating like studios. Brands are becoming content producers. And technology providers are expected to serve all of them.
Convergence is becoming the new operating model. And any communications needs to reflect the interconnected nature of today’s media landscape.
A More Positive, Pragmatic Industry Outlook
Perhaps most encouragingly, the overall mood around both events suggested an industry regaining confidence.
Despite years of uncertainty around streaming economics, production costs and audience fragmentation, the dominant themes at NAB and MPTS were practical innovation, collaboration and opportunity. Even discussions around AI felt notably more balanced and less existential than in previous years.
Industry conversations are increasingly focused on augmentation rather than replacement: using technology to empower creative teams, simplify production complexity and unlock new business models.
If H1 has shown us anything, it’s that the broadcast technology industry has entered a new phase of maturity. AI has moved beyond hype, interoperability has become a commercial necessity, and the creator economy is reshaping expectations across the industry.
That makes IBC 2026 more than just another trade show. It will be where technology vendors compete not only on innovation, but on how clearly they communicate their value.
Whether you’re launching a new solution, building thought leadership or looking to raise your profile ahead of Amsterdam, we’d love to help. If you’re attending IBC and would like to meet the GingerMay team on the ground, get in touch!