and more difficult to separate from the technology stack itself. And, perhaps most importantly, there is a growing emphasis on making connections that result in something more substantial than a hurried exchange of business cards. So, if you will be heading to Amsterdam, here’s what deserves a place on the itinerary. AI: less hype, more homework It would be strange for AI not to dominate the conversation at IBC, but this year’s programme suggests the discussion is becoming a little more grown-up. Rather than simply marvelling at what generative AI can produce, IBC 2026 is looking at where AI is actually being deployed across the media value chain – from production and post-production to news, distribution, discovery and business operations. The conference opens with ‘Disrupt, Innovate, Create: How to embrace AI’, featuring Particle6 founder and CEO Eline van der Velden and AI actor Tilly Norwood, who will appear virtually. It promises to tackle some of the trickier questions around AI-generated creativity, authorship and originality alongside the obvious question of what the technology can actually do. Elsewhere, ‘Applying AI: Predictive, generative or agentic?’ will look at different approaches to AI with speakers from Respeecher, Bertelsmann and ITN, while CTOs from Olympic Broadcasting Services and Canal+ will discuss how AI is reshaping the media business. Future Tech gets bigger – and not to mention more useful One of the most significant changes to the physical show is the expansion of Future Tech in Hall 14, which is set to be 30% larger than last year. Having launched in 2025, Future Tech is now positioned as a more established part of IBC, bringing start-ups, scale-ups, emerging tech and collaborative innovation projects together in one place. New for 2026 is Future Tech Ignite, which will connect more than 50 start-ups, entrepreneurs and emerging technologies with the wider M&E industry.
There will be a dedicated Start-up Zone, an Ignite Stage and a four- day programme covering emerging technology, skills and talent. The latter is becoming quite important as media companies contend with rapidly changing technical requirements and an industry workforce that needs to keep up. The IBC Talent Programme is also returning for its third year, bringing together educators, employers, industry bodies and emerging talent to tackle those skills questions.
Liga Portugal and the Women’s Super League among the organisations represented in the programme. ‘The New Playbook for Sports: AI, data, fans and rights’ will examine how technology is changing the relationship between rightsholders and audiences, while ‘Live Sports at Scale: Redefining the art of the possible’, featuring OBS CEO Yiannis Exarchos, will look at the practical realities of delivering huge live events to global audiences. The technology challenge here is becoming complex. Fans don’t necessarily want to sit down and watch the same feed as everyone else. They want statistics, alternative views, personalised experiences, clips, social content and immediate access across whatever screen happens to be nearest. That creates an enormous production and distribution challenge – but also a commercial opportunity. Expect AI, real-time data, cloud production, remote workflows and sophisticated personalisation to feature heavily in conversations around the sports ecosystem. Content Everywhere is, well, everywhere Content Everywhere in Hall 5 is another area to put on the list, with Google returning as an exhibitor and bookings significantly up year on year. The name gives away the central challenge: content now has to travel across a fragmented collection of platforms, devices and viewing environments. A conference session titled ‘Choice, Curation and Context? What do audiences want, from where and how?’ brings together speakers from Samsung TV Plus, ITV and Warner Bros Discovery to explore exactly that problem. The issue isn’t necessarily a lack of content. If anything, audiences have too much of it. The technical and commercial challenge is making sure they find the right content – and giving them a reason to keep watching. Trust becomes part of the tech stack AI-generated content has created an awkward problem for the media industry: if almost anything can be generated, manipulated or altered,
The creator economy isn’t going anywhere
Traditional broadcasters and streamers no longer have a
monopoly on audience attention – and IBC is giving that reality plenty of airtime. Media Universe cartographer Evan Shapiro will present ‘The Creator Economy Rules’, followed by a panel featuring BBC Studios Digital Brands, Snap, Tubi, Sidemen Entertainment and Meta. Creators are building audiences, launching businesses, producing premium content and working directly with brands, while established media organisations are experimenting with formats and distribution strategies designed for audiences that discover content outside traditional schedules and platforms. That links directly into another conference theme: brands becoming media companies themselves. The session ‘Brands as Media: Reinventing the relationship between content and advertising’ will explore how companies are using content, culture and communities to reach audiences, with speakers from Banijay, Vice Media Group, Vinted and M&C Saatchi Sport and Entertainment Europe. For broadcasters, the implication is fairly straightforward: competition for attention is coming from more directions than ever. Sport remains the ultimate tech stress test If you want to see media technology being pushed particularly hard, follow the sports crowd. IBC 2026 has a substantial focus on live sport, with FIFA, UEFA, OBS,
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