IBC Names Winners Of 2026 Innovation Awards

IBC has announced the winners of its 2026 Innovation Awards, recognizing collaborative projects in media, entertainment and technology that address challenges in content creation, distribution, delivery and accessibility.

The awards were presented Sunday at RAI Amsterdam and covered four categories: Content Creation, Content Distribution, Content Everywhere and Social Impact.

In Content Creation, the winner was Media eXchange Layer, or MXL, an open-source initiative established by the European Broadcasting Union with the North American Broadcasters Association. The project is hosted by the Linux Foundation and deployed by CBC/Radio-Canada.

In Content Distribution, Reuters won for its work replacing fixed-capacity infrastructure with a Global Shared Memory ecosystem powered by TVU Networks’ MediaMesh. IBC said the project supports event-driven, API-orchestrated news distribution and includes integrations with InSync, Kinetiq, Sony, Elecard and TAG Video Systems.

In Content Everywhere, Globo was recognized for implementing DTV+ in Brazil, combining free-to-air television with digital personalization and measurability. IBC said the project links broadcast and broadband through collaboration across government, broadcasters and industry.

In Social Impact, G&L Systemhaus won for closing the sign language gap with an AI-powered solution for live and on-demand streaming. The project brought together Signapse, Norsk/id3as and Akamai.

“Our 2026 IBC Innovation Awards winners share a common thread in breaking down previously insurmountable geographical, language, and organisational barriers to open media workflows,” said Fergal Ringrose, chair of the Innovation Awards jury. “Each winner realizes a transformational environment for collaborative, cloud-native, software-first digital ecosystems.”

IBC also presented its International Honour for Excellence to Olympic Broadcasting Services, or OBS, for its work in live Olympic sports production and broadcast innovation.

The Best Technical Paper award went to Emma Maier, Jodie Pearton, Anna Stewart, Arina Mnatsakanyan and Jonathan Freeman of i2 media research for a paper on making internet-delivered TV systems easier for older viewers.

The IBC Accelerator Project of the Year 2025 went to AI Agent Assistants for Live Production, a project that used an AI Assistant Director to coordinate production workflows through voice control and natural language commands. The project was championed by ITN, the BBC and Channel 4, with participation from CUEZ, Amira Labs, Highfield AI, Monks, CuePilot, Shure, EVS, Moments Lab and Google Cloud.

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