Areas such as the use of cloud technologies to streamline content production and distribution, the revolution of workflows powered by AI to create immersive experiences, and the importance of standardization in facilitating seamless technological advances are explored.
How sport is embracing DTC at both ends of the playing field
The rise of direct-to-consumer (DTC) broadcasting has transformed the relationship with sport. IBC examines how two English football clubs, located at very different levels of the league system, are reaching their fans directly with their content offerings.
Creating a new sense of place for media innovation in wales
The emerging virtual production scene in Wales has been boosted in recent months by the launch of two new world-class facilities, both collaboratively backed by Media Cymru. Media Cymru’s Deputy Director, Professor Sara Pepper OBE, discusses the consortium’s mission to put Wales on the global media innovation map.
“Cynefin” is the Welsh word for “sense of place”, evoking history, identity, and habitat, a concept that Professor Sara Pepper uses to define Media Cymru’s mission of transforming Wales into a “green, equitable, global, and economically sustainable hub for media production and innovation”.
‘The effects of AI on broadcast newsrooms have been astounding’, according to the EBU
The 2025 News Report from the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) highlights the dizzying pace of AI development and its impacts on newsrooms over the past ten months.
For journalists and news organizations, the report states that there is no turning back, as AI is transforming the way media operate in this new information age. Titled Leading Newsrooms in the Age of Generative AI, the report offers insights and practical cases drawn from in-depth interviews with 20 media executives and academic experts, case studies, checklists, and first-hand experiences from around the world.
As technology races ahead, there is a mismatch with media organizations, which embrace some AI solutions as useful tools while remaining wary of the implications for accuracy, integrity, public trust, and the need to stay visible and legitimate amidst a flood of AI-generated content. Newsrooms have become more strategic with AI in terms of how to bring staff on board, how audiences react, how the technology might affect creativity, and—with some hope—how it might actually help journalism thrive in an increasingly complex environment, said Dr. Alexandra Borchardt, the lead author.
The report proposes the following AI “to-do” items for newsroom leaders:
- Journalism strategy: Define your mission, your audiences, and the value you add to your audiences’ lives.
- Distribution strategy: Find the sweet spot between personalization and creating shared experiences.
- Platform strategy: Invest in “owning” your audiences and decide where to create value on third-party platforms.
- Tech strategy: Define when to be a first mover and when a smart adopter will suffice.
- Data strategy: Decide how much trusted information you will share with everyone and how much of your content you will keep proprietary.
- Talent strategy: Choose when to invest in journalistic talent and when to invest in tech talent.
With the explosion of artificial intelligence, we are witnessing not only a technological revolution—the most powerful in our history—but also a milestone in human history. So, yes, we are glad and fortunate to live in historic times. But, in a domain so central to our democracies, beware of the elephant in the room: the loss of human control, wrote Eric Scherer, Director of News MediaLab and International Affairs at France Télévisions and Chair of the EBU News Committee, in the report’s foreword.
Liz Corbin, Director of News at the EBU, stated: "As a newsroom leader, there is nothing more daunting in this age of generative AI than the need to be at the cutting edge of technology while also being responsible for protecting the integrity of our journalism. This report provides inspiring examples and builds confidence that it's possible to do both. For journalism to thrive, we must add value with brilliant storytelling, uniquely human voices, constant accountability and community connections as trusted partners of the audiences we serve".
Podcast ‘Accelerating Innovation’: understanding 6G holographics and business adoption
Kostas Katsaros, Head of Future Networks and 5G at Digital Catapult, offers an analysis of the transformative potential of 6G and how AI-native network architectures can enable applications such as holographic communication.
IBC Innovation Awards 2025
The IBC Awards bring together under one roof IBC’s Innovation and Social Impact awards, enabling a single celebration of industry advances across five categories. The IBC Innovation Awards recognize the best collaborative efforts to develop new solutions to real-world technical challenges and to address social and environmental issues.
The five categories of the IBC Innovation Awards are:
- Content Creation
- Content Distribution
- Content Everywhere
- Environment & Sustainability
- Social Impact
In conclusion, IBC2025 underscores that the future of media lies in the synergy of cloud technologies, AI-driven workflows, and common standards to ensure interoperability and quality. From the DTC revolution in sports and Wales’ virtual production centers to new newsroom strategies with generative AI, it is clear that innovation not only accelerates processes but redefines the value offered by content. Debates on 6G holographics and the IBC Innovation Awards further demonstrate the industry’s commitment to collaborative, sustainable, and audience-centered solutions.
In this context, IBC2025 invites all stakeholders to lead change by balancing technological vanguard and editorial responsibility to build a more dynamic and resilient media ecosystem.
