The broadcasting industry is undergoing a significant transformation, moving from traditional linear viewing towards immersive technologies. Extended reality (XR), virtual production, interactive storytelling, and data-driven personalization are rapidly evolving from experimental concepts to practical applications across news, sports, and entertainment.
This shift is largely driven by the need to engage younger demographics, particularly Generation Z, who exhibit distinct consumption patterns. They favor short-form, participatory content over passive viewing. Fortunately, advancements in cloud-native architectures, 5G broadcast capabilities, and more accessible production tools are reducing the technical barriers previously associated with immersive content creation.
The convergence of artificial intelligence with XR technologies offers exciting possibilities for real-time, audience-specific content delivery. While the potential is immense, questions around commercial viability, technical scalability, and user adoption rates remain. IBC 2025 will be a crucial platform to address these challenges.
“Immersive content streaming will likely happen on personal XR devices, where the convergence of XR and AI enables interactive 360° and 180° video experiences far beyond the traditional 2D screen, paired with always-accessible, personalised interfaces,” said Lucy Trang Nguyen, business development director at Accedo. These interfaces, she added, will be “populated with relevant metadata, tailored content streams, contextually relevant advertising, and integrated commerce” to generate revenue through sponsorships, merchandising, and premium access.
“Immersive formats shift audiences from passive viewing to active participation, whether through choice-driven storytelling, live interaction, or competition-inspired events,” noted Francesca Pezzoli, vice president of marketing at Looper Insights. “The commercial opportunity lies in turning that deeper connection into stronger ecosystems and more durable revenue streams.”
For sports broadcasting, immersive technology provides exciting new avenues for enhancing the viewer experience. “Whether that’s a news or sports broadcaster using interactive overlays, real-time stats, and alternative camera angles to engage the audience with better storytelling,” explained Paddy Taylor, head of broadcast at MRMC, creators can “offer bespoke branded content, and scalable production for social and broadcast platforms.”
Data-driven approaches are also gaining traction. “Our vision at Emergent is that immersive content needs to interact with the audience to increase engagement,” said David Jorba, chief business and strategy officer at Emergent. “This interaction should be driven by audience-specific and environmental real-time data that changes with the event’s pulse.”
Audio plays a pivotal role in immersive experiences, particularly in sports. “We are already seeing this in genres like sports where techniques are being implemented such as microphone placement in crowds, on players’ helmets and in goals so viewers at home can get a more realistic in-stadium experience,” said Sid Stanley, managing director at Calrec.
Industry leaders emphasize the importance of accessibility alongside innovation. “Innovation only matters if it’s accessible,” stated Bob Caniglia, director of sales operations for the Americas at Blackmagic Design. “Our goal is for the most powerful immersive storytelling tools to be just as approachable for a small creative team as they are for a large facility, and to make tools that integrate seamlessly into existing workflows without requiring steep learning curves or costly overhauls.”
“It is essential that as an industry we strive to lower access barriers which allows teams to make immersive formats easy to deploy, view and interact with, without specialized hardware,” added Roberto Musso, technical director at NDI.
The push for immersive content is partly fueled by evolving audience demographics and viewing habits. “Younger audiences tend to graze content and have very different viewing habits to traditional consumers; this is why one of the biggest challenges for broadcasters is engaging Gen-Z who are looking for relatable, short-form content,” said Stanley. “Immersive and engaging storytelling is key to achieving this, and broadcasters, rights owners, and vendors must work together to find innovative ways to blend video, data and audio to provide accessible content that is beyond compelling,” he concluded.
Improvements in virtual production and robotics are making immersive content creation more feasible for a wider range of creators. “Advances in virtual production and robotics now allow broadcasters and creators to generate high-quality, interactive visuals within compact, efficient setups, making immersive storytelling more accessible,” said Taylor.
The industry favors a gradual adoption approach. “Balancing innovation and adoption also means giving creators the opportunity to start small, scale up, and experiment with immersive formats at their own pace,” said Caniglia. “The key is removing barriers, so storytellers can focus on engaging audiences rather than wrestling with technology.”
As IBC 2025 approaches, the focus on immersive and interactive experiences underscores the industry’s commitment to adapting to evolving audience expectations while developing sustainable business models for new content formats. The event will serve as a platform for showcasing the practical implementation of these technologies across various production scales and budgets.