In our latest blog, Tim Pearson reflects on IBC 2026 and considers the main learnings against an industry that saw AI finally coming out of the labs and into production.
Every year, IBC provides a snapshot of where the media and entertainment industry is heading. Some years have been defined by technology shifts; others have been defined by new monetization approaches. This year felt different and people were in the mood to talk about their new projects and actively engage.
What stood out wasn’t necessarily a single innovation (we’ll come back to that later), but a broader shift in mindset. Across conversations with broadcasters, sports rights holders, streaming platforms, telecom operators and technology partners, a common theme emerged; intelligence is becoming the defining competitive advantage. Whether the challenge is attracting audiences, protecting revenues, extending reach, improving customer trust or securing new services, organizations are looking for ways to make smarter decisions faster.
That trend formed the foundation of the NAGRAVISION showcase at IBC 2026. From intelligence-led streaming security to AI-driven personalization and profiles to consumer cyber protection and secure Edge AI, our showcase reflected many of the market forces our customers are navigating today.
Point Solutions Are Past Their Peak
One of the strongest messages from customer discussions was the growing frustration with fragmentation. Operators and service providers have spent years assembling technology stacks to support streaming, personalization, security and customer engagement. While those investments created new capabilities, they have also created complexity. Many organizations now find themselves managing growing volumes of data, alerts and operational processes and workflows that are spread out across multiple systems and solutions.
The challenge is no longer about collecting information but about turning that information into action.
This was particularly evident in streaming security. Piracy has become highly industrialized, supported by automation, AI and globally distributed infrastructure. Security teams have access to extensive data from monitoring systems, forensic watermarking, CDN analytics and investigations. The real problem though is determining which threats matter most and where intervention will have the greatest commercial impact. This means that the focus is on intelligence-led operations rather than isolated security tools.
AI Moves from the Lab to Deployment
Another notable shift at IBC was the maturity of AI discussions. Previous shows focused on how AI could be used in the future to achieve results. This year, the conversations were much more practical, with customer’s wanting to talk about deployment, governance, operational value and measurable outcomes.
Broadcasters discussed how AI can improve personalization and create profiles that evolve with a viewer’s behaviors, security teams examined how AI can help analysts prioritize piracy threats to achieve rapid results while telecoms operators explored how AI can simplify cybersecurity for consumers and allow them to add value to their propositions beyond just connectivity. Across every segment served by NAGRAVISION, attention on AI is shifting from experimentation to implementation.
At the same time, these new opportunities create new responsibilities. As AI becomes embedded in AI workflows and processes across the organization, models, applications, data and devices must be secured in ways that were not known or required just a few years ago. By means of examples, regulations such as the EU Cyber Resilience Act and discussions about post-quantum cryptography featured prominently in many conversations.
Four Themes Dominated the NAGRAVISION 2026 Showcase
This year’s showcase was built around four core themes that directly addressed today’s market needs.
- Intelligence-led streaming security. Visitors explored how NAGRA® Venturi, making its IBC debut, helps transform fragmented anti-piracy data into actionable intelligence, allowing organizations to proactively prioritize threats and focus resources where intervention can deliver the greatest business impact. Powered by NEXUS, the NAGRA Anti-Piracy Centre, and supported by over three decades of anti-piracy expertise, the solution generated incredibly positive reactions from visitors during the event as they echoed the need for a more business-outcome driven approach based on multi-source piracy data. We were also delighted to receive a TVBEurope IBC Best in Show Award 2026 for NAGRA Venturi too.
- Personalized streaming experiences. Audiences are fragmented across streaming services, social platforms and digital channels, which requires service providers to stay central to the viewing experience and create maximum value from every viewer relationship. OpenTV® ENTera highlighted how editorial curation, AI-driven personalization and intelligent discovery are helping providers create more relevant experiences while maintaining control over their content strategies. The combination of personalization with practical operational tools, facilitated by our new Rails Builder capabilities, resonated strongly with customers looking to deepen audience engagement.
- Consumer cyberthreat protection. As consumers rely on an expanding ecosystem of connected devices, applications and online services, cybersecurity is becoming a critical part of the consumer experience and presents an opportunity for telecom operators to deliver value beyond connectivity. NAGRA® Scout attracted considerable interest from operators looking to complement existing connectivity propositions with value-add services that strengthen subscriber trust, increase retention and improve engagement. The AI-driven consumer app sparked particularly interesting discussions around how cybersecurity can become a visible, usable consumer benefit rather than an invisible network service and our announcement with Plume further demonstrated how NAGRA Scout is already helping over 30 million subscribers worldwide.
- Secure Edge AI. As has been the case at many recent shows, KLARQ, our autonomous robot, became one of the most photographed demonstrations of the whole exhibition! Beyond the novelty factor, it offered a practical illustration of how AI-powered systems operating outside of the cloud and at the network edge must be protected, authenticated and secured. The combination of Edge AI, advanced security technologies and discussions around emerging regulation created compelling conversation starters throughout the show and illustrated why it was important for Kudelski Labs, the innovation arm of the Kudelski Group, to join NAGRAVISION at the show for the first time and help guide our customers through what’s coming next.
Looking Ahead
While success in the AI era is something everyone is looking to leverage, success will depend on far more than adopting new technologies. Organizations that will thrive will be those that can transform complexity into clarity. They will use intelligence to prioritize actions, strengthen customer relationships, protect revenues and secure new digital services. Technology remains important but the decisions about its adoption are the ultimate guardians to success.
For NAGRAVISION, the conversations, customer engagement and enthusiasm we experienced throughout this year’s IBC reinforced our belief that the future of media and entertainment is not just simply powered by AI. It is powered by intelligence, trust and the ability to turn these into meaningful business outcomes.
To learn more about NAGRAVISION solutions, visit our website or book a meeting at either Cabsat (5 – 7 October, Dubai) or NetworkX (13-15 October, Vienna) to talk to one of our specialists. We look forward to continuing the conversation.
