The EBU (European Broadcasting Union) has awarded LiveU a significant five-year contract to revolutionize its Eurovision News Exchange. This initiative will transition the existing satellite-dependent workflow to a hybrid, cloud-centric model for 24/7 live news delivery over IP.
LiveU’s Matrix cloud IP distribution platform will become the core of the network, connecting over 60 public service newsrooms across Europe and globally. This deployment highlights broadcasters’ trust in LRT (LiveU Reliable Transport), enhanced with SRT support, following a thorough evaluation process. The project includes a phased rollout of LiveU Ingest for cloud recording and streamlined content sharing, currently being piloted with 15 members.
At participating member locations, 125 LiveU Transceivers are being integrated, incorporating Dual Active (active/active) redundancy to run parallel cloud and on-premise streams. This setup guarantees uninterrupted service and complements the backup satellite distribution system. A multi-region, multi-vendor cloud architecture, along with proactive monitoring and on-demand channel scaling, are incorporated to manage major events effectively. The EBU anticipates completing the full implementation by January 2026 and launching the new IP network on January 1, 2026, with a gradual decommissioning of satellite contribution.
According to Emilio San Pedro, Head of Eurovision News Exchange at the EBU, "This marks a decisive step as public service media embrace cloud-based IP workflows for faster, more sustainable and cost-efficient live news delivery." LiveU’s Matrix has already supported major news events during its initial deployment phase.
Roy Hasson, VP Global SaaS and Solution Sales at LiveU, stated that this victory demonstrates Matrix’s "mission-critical reliability, scalability and value-for-money for primary distribution."