IBC announced the nine projects selected for its Accelerator Media Innovation 2026 programme, which brings together organisations from the broadcast, streaming, live events and media technology sectors to explore emerging innovations transforming how content is created, distributed and consumed.
Selected from proposals submitted by major global media organisations during Accelerator Kickstart Day 2026 at BBC Broadcasting House, this year’s programme brings together companies such as BBC, NBCUniversal, DAZN, ITV, Channel 4, Associated Press, Sky and Al Jazeera, collaborating with technology providers on a new generation of projects.
Now in its eighth year, the Accelerator programme has established itself as a key point of collaboration in the industry, providing a framework to accelerate practical projects that address real sector needs.
The Accelerator programme offers a unique environment for collaborative innovation, bringing the industry together to solve complex challenges in an open and trusted space. Each year we see ideas evolve into practical solutions, with teams working together in ways that are not possible in day-to-day operations, said Mark Smith, head of the IBC Accelerator Media Innovation Programme.
AMD-HP and Shure have been announced as associate sponsors of the Accelerator programme, while EIT Culture & Creativity, backed by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), was introduced during the Kickstart event as IBC’s innovation partner for 2026, reinforcing its role as a catalyst for innovation in the global media ecosystem.
Industry participants highlighted the programme’s value in accelerating innovation through collaboration. Sandeep Tiku, Chief Technology Officer at DAZN, commented on advancements in areas such as streaming: “The Accelerator programme is becoming the nexus that brings together hardware, software and technology experts to revolutionise, redefine and reimagine what streaming will be; it is only possible thanks to this programme”.
Meanwhile, Alex Bassett, Vice President of Innovation at NBCUniversal, pointed out that fragmented workflows in news are a major challenge that the incubator project aims to address:
A story-centric approach is a concept that has long been discussed in the news domain, but has been difficult to implement. We are not building a proof of concept or a demo, but something closer to a minimum viable product that can be adopted.
The projects selected for 2026 will now enter a six-month development phase, during which teams will be formed and solutions rapidly developed in a collaborative, cross-industry environment, culminating in live demonstrations of proof of concept (PoC) in the Accelerator Zone at IBC2026 (11–14 September).
The Accelerator and Incubator 2026 projects are:
- Network Control: Your Connection, Your Choice – Proposed by GSMA Fusion, BBC, EBU (including the 5G MAG and 5G EMERGE consortia), France Télévisions, RAI (CRITS), University of Strathclyde, with supporting participant Neutral Wireless: this project uses open 5G network APIs to dynamically prioritise broadcast devices, ensuring reliable, high-quality wireless video signals in congested environments.
- FRAMES: Federated Retrieval, Agentic Media Environment and Software (Defined Workflows) – Proposed by RAI, EBU and MovieLabs, with ITV, ETC (Entertainment Technology Center) USC and XRBB as co-champions, and AMD-HP and Holli as supporting participants: this project aims to connect broadcaster archives, creative teams and AI agents to accelerate pre-production through intelligent content discovery and multimodal AI collaboration.
- Q-Stream: Quantum Secure, Network-Adaptive, Verifiable, Live Media Infrastructure – Proposed by IET and BFBS, with Tesla Technologies as a supporting participant: a proof-of-concept system using AI-based predictive orchestration, semantic video compression and quantum-secure hybrid authentication to maintain reliable live broadcasts in limited bandwidth or compromised network environments.
- VooPla: The Decision Twin - Decision-Ready Sustainable Digital Twins for Broadcast & Virtual Production Studios – Proposed by Digital Catapult, with Solve Evolve and Heliguy as supporting participants: explores how accurate digital twins of studios can help assess technical feasibility, costs and environmental impact from early production stages.
- From Broadcast to Me-Cast: New Sports Engagement via Agentic Workflows – Proposed by Astro Malaysia and MBC, with TCS as a supporting participant: analyses an AI-native platform that automates live workflows, enabling real-time personalisation, content adaptation and new monetisation opportunities.
- Crystal Clear: Boosting Speech Intelligibility in Media – Proposed by Channel 4 and BBC: develops a metric to measure dialogue clarity in audiovisual content and integrate it into production workflows to detect accessibility issues.
- Delta Protocol: Live Media Reinvented – Proposed by DAZN: transforms live streaming by redefining the delivery layer, shifting from a frame-based model to a semantic one that prioritises relevant moments, enabling more personalised, immersive and efficient experiences.
- IFeL: Immersive Festival Live - Remote Presence at Scale – Proposed by SMPTE and MIT Reality Hack, with several universities and ITV as co-champions, and Shure, DeoVR, Motion Impossible and Surround Sync as participants: a full workflow prototype for immersive festival streaming, combining multi-perspective video, spatial audio and interactive participation.
- IBC Incubator 2026: SMART STORIES: The Agentic Production Ecosystem – Proposed by Associated Press, NBCUniversal, ITN and BBC, with multiple partners: aims to define an open standard for interoperability of narrative context in live production, from capture to distribution.
