IBC2026 Innovation Awards Finalists Announced

IBC has named the finalists for the IBC2026 Innovation Awards, spotlighting collaborative, real-world deployments from across the globe that push the boundaries of media, entertainment and technology.

The awards cover four areas — Content Creation, Content Distribution, Content Everywhere and Social Impact — highlighting how partnerships between media companies and technology providers are advancing production, delivery, audience experiences and societal outcomes.

This year's shortlist showcases momentum in AI, cloud-native and software-defined workflows, open standards, novel live production and distribution approaches, personalisation at scale, and improved accessibility. From multilingual newsrooms and AI-assisted motorsport strategies to next-generation broadcast platforms, digital TV transformation and AI-driven sign language services, the projects show what can be achieved when organisations combine expertise and resources to solve business, creative and social challenges.

"The number and standard of entries received from around the globe for the 2026 Innovation Awards has been amazing – truly outstanding," said Fergal Ringrose, Chair of the IBC2026 Innovation Awards Jury. "Seeing more than 120 high-quality deployed innovation projects competing for recognition underlines the ever-growing appreciation of our unique Awards across the media and entertainment community.”

He added: "It is an honour for our judging panel to review these compelling projects. We remain committed to our guiding principles of innovation, collaboration and partnership as we do our utmost to fairly select the world's foremost completed innovation projects as category finalists and eventual winners."

Winners will be revealed on Sunday 13 September at 18:00 CEST on the main stage at the IBC Conference, RAI Amsterdam.

The 2026 Finalists

Content Creation
- How Collective Newsroom powers BBC India — A greenfield, deadline-driven rollout of a unified, multilingual production operation. Partners: the BBC and nxtedition; with support from Adobe, Blackmagic Design, Calrec, Ideal Systems and Ross Video.
- Media eXchange Layer (MXL) — An open-source initiative from the European Broadcasting Union in collaboration with the North American Broadcasters Association, hosted by the Linux Foundation.
- Formula E Strategy Agent — In partnership with Google Cloud, this AI architecture ingests and contextualises sub-millisecond, multi-feed car telemetry in a tight window to predict and simplify complex race strategies for viewers. Technical support: Aurora Media Worldwide.

Content Distribution
- Capacity that follows the live news story — Reuters has shifted from fixed-capacity infrastructure to a Global Shared Memory ecosystem using TVU Networks’ MediaMesh, enabling event-driven, API-orchestrated news distribution. Integrated partners include InSync, Kinetiq, Sony, Elecard and TAG Video Systems.
- Transforming broadcast distribution in Malaysia — TCODE serves as Radio Televisyen Malaysia’s centralised digital contribution and workflow orchestration platform, developed with Ideal Systems. Technical supporters include Blue Lucy Media, Emotion Systems and Fortinet.
- Server-guided ad insertion at scale — RTBF (Belgium) moved from CSAI/SSAI to standards-based SGAI, launched for the FIFA World Cup, using Bitmovin’s Player, AIP’s AdBlendr, HLS interstitials and SVTA2053. Technical support: Dotscreen, Red Bee Media and Régie Média Belge.

Content Everywhere
- Implementation of DTV+ in Brazil — Globo’s DTV+ blends free-to-air reach with digital personalisation and measurability by integrating broadcast and broadband, reconnecting mass audiences with interactive capabilities through cross-sector collaboration among government, broadcasters and industry.
- The connected fan experience — With Microsoft, the Premier League Companion powered by Copilot reimagines global fan engagement, linking 1.8 billion fans in 189 countries to 30 seasons of content via personalised, real-time AI conversational experiences. Technical partner: Beyond Sport.
- Tilly Norwood (and the Tillyverse) — Developed by Particle 6 with its talent studio Xicoia, the AI-generated performer has reached an estimated 80 million people worldwide, generating around 500 million cumulative impressions.

Social Impact
- AI for Good — Founded by the International Telecommunication Union, this platform convenes governments, start-ups, researchers, UN agencies, industry leaders, civil society and youth from over 180 countries to unlock AI’s potential in service of humanity.
- IOC Cyber Abuse Protection Service (CAPS) — A system designed to protect athletes, teams, coaches and officials from online abuse during the Olympic Games. Technical supporter: Signify AI.
- Closing the sign language gap — G&L Systemhaus united AI firm Signapse, software company Norsk/id3as and CDN provider Akamai to deliver a broadcast-grade, AI-powered sign language solution for live and on-demand streaming.

The IBC2026 Awards ceremony will also include the IBC International Honour for Excellence, recognising a major contribution to the global media industry, and the Best Technical Paper, chosen from the peer-reviewed papers presented at the IBC2026 Conference.