Hi there StreamTV Insiders, this week kicks off the annual StreamTV Show, happening June 16-19 in Denver.
With over 2,200 attendees, 175 sponsors and exhibitors and more than 270 speakers expected, it’s slated to be an insight-packed four days. Leaders and innovators spanning the streaming TV and CTV ecosystem will come together to discuss and learn about key challenges, developments and successful strategies across content, technology and advertising.
Ahead of the event tomorrow, we’re here to give you a preview of some of the key topics and sessions to keep an eye on.
With fragmentation of viewers, content, services and systems continuing to impact the media and advertising ecosystems, this year’s show theme is all around audience, attention, as well as enabling technologies like AI.
Short-form and creators rise
The rise of short-form social video and creator content continues to make an impact on the streaming TV industry and we expect plenty of conversations around new formats, strategies to foster fandoms and community building and the evolution of content production including the rise of new models like serialized vertical video microdramas.
Against the backdrop of creators, YouTube will undoubtedly be part of the conversation as it continues to carve out a pole position for its platform on CTV and YouTube VP Tara Walpert Levy will give a keynote presentation to kick off Wednesday morning.
But of course YouTube isn’t the only place for creators any more and we look forward to hearing from other parts of the ecosystem that are also working to tap into consumers’ creator affinity. Tuesday will feature a leaders’ roundtable on Creators as streaming’s new power players, with speakers from Tubi, Samsung TV Plus and Studio71.
Creators and fandoms are a growing part of the strategy at Tubi and content chief Adam Lewinson will be on stage for a keynote Wednesday.
Thursday’s Media Universe Summit from Evan Shapiro will also discuss creators making the move from social video to media companies or studios in their own right and we’re excited for a fireside chat with Sean Atkins, CEO of Dhar Mann Studios.
Also, be sure to catch a discussion with Guy Hameiri, the co-founder of RoseBerry Media, about the new content studio that just formed earlier this year and has plans for a DTC app, as well as it’s proprietary tech that reformats and verticalizes existing long-form content libraries into the recent but popular bite-sized microdrama format made for mobile.
The company already has secured U.S. studio and leading super-indie production and distribution houses as partners, including major names like All3Media, Banijay Rights, Fremantle, A+E Global Media and Cineflix Rights. and previously told StreamTV Insider it expects to have 500 titles by year’s end.
On the topic of content duration, Thursday’s content track kicks of with a research keynote by Omdia analyst Paul Erickson with a content market outlook in the battle of attention with short-form vs. long-form.
Premium, brand safety still prioritized
When it comes to premium company that has made a commitment and continues to lean into premium and long-form storytelling – with a particular emphasis on women’s stories – is Starz. We’re eager to hear what Starz’ Alison Hoffman and Kathryn Busby share on stage Wednesday as it relates to premium in a time of creator and short-form consumption.
As streamers look to attract the whole family and brands aim to show up in safe environments, kids and family content is also poised to be a theme of the week, including discussions with leaders from PBS Kids, Moonbug Entertainment, Future Today and more.
The question of formats, long-form versus short-form, creator content and so on also speak to another topic we expect throughout – strategies to boost user engagement and ultimately help monetization.
The question of future OTT growth and evoluvtion of studios is one several in the industry are grappling with and will be addressed during separate roundtables Wednesday with leaders including Roku, Warner Bros. Discovery, Freemantle, A&E, and ITV Studios
On the premium front, another topic not to be ignored is the continued power of sports and ways to tap into and foster fan engagement.
We won’t list all of the sessions delving into the sports topic, but a few include Tuesday’s TVREV workshop session “The Evolution Of Sports Media,” which will explore successful strategies to reach distracted younger fans, deepen their fan engagement and more effectively monetize sports viewership in new innovative ways.
Of part of the appeal of sports is advertising revenue, although dollars aren’t necessarily flowing to certain parts of the ecosystem like FAST as quickly as others.
Be sure to catch Thursday’s panel focused on live sports advertising on CTV, featuring execs from C15 Studios, FloSports, PGA Tour and Transmit.
And in a fragmented ecosystem where the price for live sports rights continues to grow, the ability to drive discovery and tune-in, as well as monetization is top of mind. Don’t miss a leaders’ roundtable on the topic, where we’ll hear from Roku’s Joe Franzetta, Wurl’s Dave Bernath, NHL’s Dan Kim, and Gracenote’s John Morash.
The question of premium inventory (which may be in the eye of the beholder), is also one up for debate and will get its own attention in the context of the Next Era of CTV Advertising during a discussion among leaders at NBCU, Google TV, and Spectrum Reach on Wednesday.
An evolving ecosystem
With the media ecosystem undergoing shifts, different approaches to pricing and packaging and business models are being pursued across FAST, AVOD, SVOD, vMVPD and the StreamTV Show plans to delve into what’s working and what’s not with different conversations throughout the week.
That spans MVPD moves like those from Charter to bundle major SVODs into pay TV packages, competing SVODs creating pairings, to FASTand OS players role in bundles, to new measurement and smarter programming playbooks across models with speakers from Xumo, Tastemade, Revry, DirecTV and more.
For product and technology, we expect to hear about innovations helping across aspects like content discovery, user engagement and experience, personalization, subscriber tune-in and retention, among many others.
AI will undoubtedly come up, where VIDAA editor-in-chief Denis Ostir told us ahead of the show that it’s employing AI for help with things like surfacing different title cards on content to help pique users’ interest – but where the first step to better content discovery requires app and content owners to loosen their grip and be willing to share more metadata with platform partners like V about the programming that lives inside of their apps.
Don’t miss a session dedicated to how AI, personalization and unified search are part of new UX approaches reshaping content discovery and making it easier to connect the right viewer with the right content. That includes efforts by Cineverse, with President of Technology and Chief Product Officer Tony Hidor on stage Thursday.
When it comes to the user experience TVOS players are increasingly the entry point and gatekeepers to TV viewing and a place for advertising, a topic that will come up with Alan Wolk ‘s chat Tuesday with Ed Lee from The Trade Desk’s Ventura TV OS. As well as the OS leaders’ roundtable with Hong Kwon from Xumo among other speakers.
As streamers battle for finite consumer time and attention, getting the message out and in the right place is part of the picture.
Marketing and CTV advertising
This year the StreamTV Show will have a half-day Marketers Summit helping to kick off Tuesday, where we’re keeping an eye on discussions around how to turn audiences into communities that themselves help drive engagement with content on a panel discussion among execs at Freemantle, AMC Networks, Crunchyroll and the Social Department.
Thursday we’re looking forward to a full-day edicated track focused on CTV advertising – which is becoming a bigger part of the streaming picture, a key source of revenue and monetization, and a place where innovation is happening across formats, technology stacks and more - but where challenges and room for improvement remain, including for buying routes and measurement, among others.
After kicking off with a VAB research keynote on consumer sentiments for premium video vs YouTube, the track will dive into discussions around key topics such as programmatic, interactive CTV ad formats, attracting DTC brands with self-serve tools, metrics and measurement, contextual targeting, AI for targeting, optimization and creative, and the convergence of broadcast and CTV.
This preview is just a taste of some discussions slated for this year’s event but isn’t even close to an exhaustive list, so be sure to check out the full agenda here, sign up for our show daily and StreamTV Insider newsletter here if you’re not already, and check back throughout the week for more live from the StreamTV Show 2026.