The sports broadcasting industry is poised for a significant change as it prepares for IBC 2025 in Amsterdam. The transition from traditional on-site production to cloud-based, remote workflows is no longer experimental; it's becoming the standard. Despite the clear advantages—reduced costs, increased scalability, and global talent access—the industry faces ongoing difficulties with reliability, timing, and integration.
This shift represents a fundamental reimagining of live sports content production, processing, and distribution. Paul Calleja, CEO of GlobalM, highlights the benefits: “Cloud-based and remote workflows have transformed live sports production by enabling scalable, flexible, and cost-efficient operations, reducing the need for massive on-site crews and infrastructure. They allow broadcasters to spin up resources on demand, centralize operations, and integrate global talent without travel.”
The impact extends beyond cost savings. World Archery's investment in Appear’s X Platform showcases how smaller organizations can now achieve broadcast-quality production in-house. Ian Wagdin, VP of technology and innovation at Appear, explains: “With edge encoding and IP-native media transport, even mid-tier or regional sports can now bring production in-house without sacrificing quality. The sports federation now has full control of its content delivery, significantly improving the quality and consistency of its live streams.” Environmental benefits are also significant, as noted by Russell Johnson, director of Hitomi Broadcast, who points to a decrease in carbon footprints due to reduced equipment transportation.
A hybrid approach, blending on-premises and cloud environments, is emerging as the preferred model. Wagdin notes, “Hybrid production environments have moved beyond transitional, they are fast becoming the operational standard. Broadcasters no longer want to choose between on-prem or cloud; they expect seamless integration across both.” Media transport, encoding, and monitoring are increasingly containerized, allowing broadcasters to customize workflows.
However, challenges remain, particularly concerning network reliability, latency, and system integration. Calleja points out: “On game day, gaps remain around legacy systems still in use that cause things like long latencies, reliability under peak loads, and the dependencies on stable connectivity in stadiums where networks can be congested. Operationally, engineers still face challenges with tool fragmentation, interoperability across vendors, and maintaining the same level of control and immediacy that a traditional on-site setup once guaranteed.” Timing discrepancies in distributed workflows pose additional challenges, as highlighted by Johnson: “The critical gap we see on game day is timing verification across these complex, multi-location setups. What might seem like minor misalignments in traditional SDI workflows can become significant issues in IP environments, where multiple buffers and network paths introduce unexpected delays.”
Robotic camera systems present unique difficulties. Paddy Taylor, head of broadcast at MRMC, states: “The quality of delivery on Game Day is largely dependent on the broadcast infrastructure, requiring a low-latency, stable connection, something not all stadiums can provide. Automated tracking can struggle when the play becomes unpredictable or players are obstructed, requiring manual intervention.”
AI is transforming workflows, particularly in content creation. Kathleen Barrett, CEO of Backlight, notes: “Editors can now cut highlights from anywhere in the world, while AI systems automatically detect key moments — goals, touchdowns, game-changing plays — and generate clips in real time. Content is instantly adapted for different platforms, from vertical video to traditional broadcast, enabling teams to scale output efficiently and cost effectively.” However, Barrett emphasizes the continuing need for human expertise in nuanced storytelling.
Infrastructure performance is critical. Duncan Beattie, market development manager at Tuxera, explains: “Sports broadcasting represents some of the most demanding workflows we encounter. When you’re dealing with multiple 4K or 8K feeds, real-time graphics rendering, and the need for instant content delivery across multiple platforms, every component of your infrastructure stack needs to perform flawlessly.”
Protecting content is vital, especially with cloud-native distribution. Eric Gallier, vice president of video solutions at Harmonic, emphasizes the ongoing need for anti-piracy measures: “Fighting piracy continues to be an uphill battle for live sports streaming; however, sophisticated anti-piracy measures such as forensic and dynamic watermarking, geo-blocking, and CDN-level authentication and access control services can help content providers to quickly identify piracy sources and stop content restreaming.”
IBC 2025 will likely focus on addressing the remaining operational gaps in cloud production workflows. The industry’s focus remains on ensuring seamless and reliable cloud-based sports production for millions of viewers.