Broadcasting & Streaming

St. Petersburg, Fla. – September 11, 2026 -- The Poynter Institute and Public Media Company have launched the Future of Public Media Initiative, a national effort to rebuild the U.S. public media system a year after Congress rescinded more than $1 billion in future funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Congress cut over $1 billion in CPB funding a year ago, ending five decades of support

CPB had distributed funding to a network of 1,500 public media stations for over 50 years, backing news, educational and cultural programming. The rescission left many local stations searching for new funding and operating models.

Amsterdam – September 11, 2026 -- DJI will stage the international premiere of its SDR Transmission 2 wireless video system at IBC 2026, running September 11-14 at RAI Amsterdam, booth 12.G75.

SDR Transmission 2 targets multi-camera production teams with switchable transceiver design

The new wireless video transmission system features a design that can switch between transmitter and receiver roles, a feature DJI says suits small to mid-sized film and video teams producing commercials, documentaries, short films, feature films or livestreams with multiple cameras. DJI states the system delivers improved stability, interference resistance and signal penetration over its earlier SDR technology. Full specifications will follow the product launch on September 17.

Atlanta – September 11, 2026 -- MaxPreps and iFlag will stage the inaugural MaxPreps Flag Football Showdown Sept. 11-12, 2026, bringing 18 top-ranked girls' flag football programs and more than 350 student-athletes to the Chula Vista Elite Athlete Training Center in California.

Field pulls elite programs from California, Alabama and Montana

Teams were selected using national rankings, season performance and competitive resumes, with the roster including Central of Phenix City, Ala., JSerra Catholic, Huntington Beach and Newport Harbor. Four nationally ranked individual players are set to compete: No. 1 Makena Cook and No. 2 Ava Irwin of Sierra Canyon, No. 6 Tessa Russell of JSerra Catholic and No. 8 Savannah Sevier of Central of Alabama.

Berlin – September 11, 2026 -- German digital media outlet NIUS drew more than 1.3 million viewers for its special broadcast covering the Saxony-Anhalt state election, marking one of the largest audiences recorded for live digital political coverage in Germany.

YouTube live audience peaks at 135,000 concurrent viewers

At the broadcast's peak, over 135,000 viewers watched simultaneously on YouTube alone. NIUS' YouTube channel logged more than 5.2 million total viewers in July, according to the company.

NIUS Live becomes Germany's largest daily livestream

Over the past seven days, NIUS Live averaged 32,357 concurrent viewers per episode, positioning it as the largest livestream in Germany by the company's account. The program airs daily starting at 6 a.m.

Amsterdam – – September 11, 2026 -- NetActuate has moved its 2026 C-Band Transition Acceleration Program onto the NetActuate Media Substrate, a transport layer the company is introducing at IBC 2026, giving U.S. broadcasters a terrestrial path off C-band satellite ahead of a federally mandated spectrum auction.

Broadcasters get a redundant path without buying a second circuit

The program, first announced at NAB, now runs on infrastructure NetActuate already operates. A station group sends one stream and receives one stream while the company runs diverse paths beneath it. In a blackout test cited by the company, one path was taken fully dark and the merged output lost no data.

Amsterdam – September 11, 2026 -- NetActuate today launched the Media Substrate, a managed transport layer that runs redundant paths for contribution-grade live video across more than 45 global locations, available immediately in the company's Customer Portal ahead of IBC 2026.

Broadcasters send one stream while NetActuate manages dual paths beneath it

The service lets broadcasters send a single stream and receive a single stream, while NetActuate runs diverse paths across its network, merges them at egress, and measures latency and continuity on every hop. In a blackout test cited by the company, one path was taken fully dark and the merged output lost no data.

Denver – September 11, 2026 -- Comcast Technology Solutions (CTS) has signed a multi-year agreement with A+E Global Media to centralize video-on-demand distribution for the A&E, HISTORY, and Lifetime brands using its Comcast MediaExpress platform.

Comcast MediaExpress consolidates content ingest across seven major distribution partners

The deal establishes a single point of ingest for A+E Global Media's premium video titles and metadata, feeding distribution to Amazon, Apple Channels, Xfinity, Cox, Mediacom, DIRECTV and DISH. The 24/7 managed service, part of the broader Comcast Media360 portfolio, is built to cut operational complexity in content preparation, packaging and delivery.

Mainz – September 10, 2026 -- German public broadcaster ZDF launches its 2026/2027 UEFA Champions League coverage with two consecutive highlight broadcasts, airing the men's competition for the third season under the 36-team league-phase format.

ZDF schedules back-to-back highlight shows for matchday one

"ZDFsportstudio UEFA Champions League" airs Wednesday, September 9, 2026, at 23:00 CET, covering opening matches involving VfB Stuttgart and Borussia Dortmund. A second edition follows Thursday, September 10, 2026, at 23:15 CET, featuring FC Bayern Munich and RB Leipzig. Host Katrin Müller-Hohenstein anchors both editions from the Mainz studio, joined by former professional player and U19 national coach Hanno Balitsch as analyst.

Shenzhen – September 10, 2026 -- China has moved to institutionalize regional media cooperation ahead of hosting the 33rd APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting later this year, with a Shenzhen-based forum producing four concrete outcomes including a new coordinating body and a technology-sharing center for Asia-Pacific outlets.

The Asia-Pacific Media Forum established the Asia-Pacific Media Partnership Organizing Committee, exchanged China-foreign media cooperation documents, launched the "Gather in Shenzhen, Create a Better Asia-Pacific" Media Cooperation Initiative, and released the Shenzhen Consensus. Organizers framed the shift as a move from "scattered interaction" to "institutionalized collaboration" among regional media players.

Mainz – September 10, 2026 -- German public broadcaster ZDF has shortlisted five debut novels for its 48th annual "aspekte" Literature Prize, a €10,000 award recognized as a launchpad for major literary careers since 1979.

Five debut novels advance to the final round

The finalists are Valeria Gordeev's "Die Zikade entschlüpft ihrer goldglänzenden Hülle" (S. Fischer), Clara Leinemann's "Gelbe Monster" (Suhrkamp), Martin Piekar's "Vom Fällen eines Stammbaums" (Rowohlt), Lilli Tollkien's "Mit beiden Händen den Himmel stützen" (Aufbau), and David Vajda's "Diamanten" (Hanser). Each title represents a different major German-language publishing house, underscoring the prize's reach across the industry's leading imprints.