In this episode of Accedo Playback, host Neil Van Zyl is joined by Accedo co-founders Michael Lantz and Fredrik Andersson for a forward-looking conversation on where the streaming industry is headed and what video businesses should be preparing for next. Drawing on decades of industry experience, they reflect on how recent market shifts are influencing strategic decision-making across OTT, and what these changes mean for sustainable growth in the years ahead.

The discussion offers practical perspectives on how streaming services can navigate increasing complexity, balance innovation with profitability, and make smarter long-term choices around monetization, technology, and operations. You will gain insight into how industry dynamics are evolving, where real opportunities may emerge, and how media organizations can position themselves to stay competitive as the market continues to mature.

This episode is aimed at anyone looking to better understand the strategic forces shaping the future of OTT and to gain informed, experience-driven guidance on how to adapt in an increasingly fragmented and fast-changing video landscape.

00:55 Reflections on the biggest macro surprises in 2025 and how they will shape 2026

03:50 What types of M&A could actually deliver value next year?

06:45 Why sports rights remain so valuable

11:50 Advice for those starting an OTT service: strategy before tech

14:30 What could be the best-positioned niches for 2026

16:50 Agentic AI use cases in 2026; how will Accedo Compose help?

25:28 What is the industry paying too much attention to, and what isn’t getting enough focus?

30:10 Final remarks and what to look out for in 2026.

Host Lucy Trang Nguyen (Director of Strategic Alliances & Business Development for Emerging Technologies, Accedo) is joined by Laurence Boyd (Chief Content & Product Officer, E1 Series) and Charles-Edwin Root (Digital Manager, HBS) to unpack the first pilot of the XR Sports Alliance (XRSA) — and what it means for rights holders, broadcasters, and tech partners who are beginning to take immersive seriously.

Using XRSA’s real-world deployment with the E1 Series as a case study, the discussion goes behind the scenes of bringing XR into live sports. You’ll hear how the teams approached strategy, operations, and collaboration, and what they learned from capturing immersive content on boats, buoys, podiums, and in XR headsets.

Learn where XR in sports is today, what actually resonates with fans, and how to build toward sustainable monetization instead of isolated experiments.

• What XRSA is and why it matters for the industry – 02:00

• Why now is the moment to test and learn in XR – 05:30

• XRSA’s first deployment with the E1 Series and lessons learned – 08:40

• What immersive really adds for fans, and who needs to be convinced internally – 19:45

• User testing insights: motion sickness, content formats, and reuse for social – 22:18

• Interactive XR, brand engagement, and the path to monetization – 29:00

• Practical advice on KPIs, rights constraints, and how to get started with XR today – 39:00

In this episode of Playback, host Bleuenn Le Goffic, VP Business Transformation at Accedo is joined by Michael Schmidt, Global Director, Industry Partnerships at AWS and Simon McGrath, Chief Marketing office at Merapar to explore how AI’s role in media and entertainment is rapidly evolving from experimental projects to fully operationalized, business-critical systems.

Together, they dive into the rise of agentic AI, composable architectures, and FinOps, and how these trends are reshaping technology investment, cost management, and audience engagement.

3:39 AI’s development in Media & Entertainment industry - have we moved past experimentation to operational use cases?

12:01 What would be the impact of AI on investment strategy and software procurement?

18:08 How AI distills data into decision points and reduces time to resolve operational events.

25:27 A shift in AI strategy to focus on growth, subscriber acquisition, churn reduction, and monetization strategies.

33:38 The future of OTT and consumer experience with AI

In this episode, Stephen Shaw (Senior Solutions Architect at New Relic) and Luke Gaydon (Head of Offering and Portfolio Management at Accedo) talk about the hurdles organizations face when deploying observability tools, and why it’s time for the industry to stop flying blind.

From real client objections to the evolution of the technology itself, they explore and exchange experiences on what’s worked, what hasn’t, and the risks of waiting too long to embrace the next-gen OTT observability stack.

How do you turn an idea into a growing streaming business? It takes more than just great content—and our guest speakers know it well.

In this episode, David Guinan (General Manager at Major League Table Tennis) and David MacPhie (Global Sales Director at Accedo One) dive into the must-ask questions and practical decisions every organization faces before going to market:

Is there real demand for your service? What monetization model makes the most sense for your content? How should you split your first-year investment? And which tech is the best fit for a greenfield project like this?

With firsthand stories from launching, running, and advising OTT platforms, they unpack what works, how needs evolve as your service hits key growth milestones, and what they’d do differently if they were starting all over again.

00:58 - What are the first things you consider when starting an OTT service?

04:38 - How should a startup/nascent video service go about making decisions to define their OTT technology strategy? 

11:55 - How do you build a brand and tackle marketing as a new service?

17:28 - What are the most useful/critical analytics data points?

23:10 - What to focus on when you have a running service?

40:35 - How do you budget for your service among technology, operational team, marketing, etc.?

Mathias Johnson (Product Manager, Hibox) and Rasmus Almqvist (VP Global Sales) join us to explore how video is transforming the guest and patient experience across the hospitality, healthcare, and enterprise sectors.

They explain how Hibox as a global provider of interactive TV and OTT solutions is driving innovation by enabling seamless, multi-screen video services tailored for hotels, hospitals, and workplace environments.

Topics covered include typical user journeys in hospitality and healthcare (2:25), shifts in the hospitality industry and staying ahead of the competition (11:40), monetization strategies across verticals (15:00), and how to drive adoption through innovation (29:05).

Featuring Vijay Sajja (Founder and CEO of Evergent Technologies) and Michael Lantz (Co-founder and CEO of Accedo), this episode dissects the critical shift from pure subscriber growth to sustainable monetization in video streaming. The conversation explores the resulting challenges and delves into potential future monetization options that can effectively balance revenue generation and user experience. Vijay and Michael also touch upon the vital role of analytics and usage data in unlocking successful OTT monetization and share the hyper-critical success factors that, based on their experience, are often overlooked by streaming providers and can hinder a profitable business.

00:56 How can OTT services balance monetization and user experience to maximize revenue while retaining subscribers?
02:57 How can frontends/UX's affect user choices when it comes to subscriptions?
08:36 How will subscription tiers change or trend in the next 3-5 years?
18:20 What role does data and analytics play in the future of OTT monetization?
29:50 What are some aspects when developing or operating an OTT service that are hyper critical, but often not considered?

Recorded live at NAB 2025, this episode explores the findings of the latest industry study on Streaming Analytics in the Age of AI, led by Mrugesh Desai (VP North America) and Professor Serguei Netessine (The Wharton School).

Guest speakers David Guinan (Major League Table Tennis), Kirby Grines (Founder & CEO at The Streaming Wars), and Jesús Herrero Valverde (Co-founder at Jump AI Technologies) share their real-world experiences and discuss how leading video streaming platforms are currently leveraging data analytics to enhance the viewing experience.

They discuss the current analytics landscape (2:54), challenges in live sports (4:58), KPIs and data quality (7:54), how AI is influencing decision-making (12:55), quality of service metrics (16:35), the shift toward real-time analytics (21:00), inefficiencies in analytics tools (24:35), the evolution of personalization (27:10), and what’s next for AI in streaming (32:20).

Pernilla Wraneus and Sadie Groom take the stage in this special episode celebrating Women’s History Month. The conversation highlights the importance of mentorship, inclusive leadership, and industry-wide efforts to create equal opportunities for women in media and technology.

They discuss Sadie’s career journey in the media tech space (1:15), the inspiration behind Rise (9:18), what companies can do to support women into leadership roles (14:55), strategies for achieving workplace diversity (19:10), and the qualities of a good mentor (22:35).

Learn more about Rise here.

Music by: Jahzzar

In this episode, Neil van Zyl talks to Chris McNair, Head of New Business & Strategy at Accedo, and Paddy Buckley, Business Development Director at Accedo, about how publishers can no longer wait with implementing a video-first strategy, taking cues from broadcasters and the wider media and entertainment industry. The discussion centers around themes such as the importance of owning the entire customer journey, how long-form video opens up new routes to monetization, and how big screen applications are a powerful complement to a publisher's existing web and mobile presence. The guests also share their top UX best practices as well as insight into how video can be used to boost both user satisfaction and ad revenues.

Music by: ⁠Jahzzar⁠