DVB Chair Remo Vogel opened DVB World 2026 with a keynote on DVB in an IP-centric future (Picture: MichielTon.com)
Broadcast and technology leaders gathered in Amsterdam on 17-18 March for DVB World 2026, where discussions focused on the shift from traditional broadcast to IP-based delivery, the rollout of DVB-I and the growing role of AI in media distribution.
Opening the conference, DVB Chair Remo Vogel (rbb/ARD) outlined the organisation’s vision of enabling “a managed transition from classic broadcast to IP-centric media distribution, retaining an open ecosystem for devices and services”. He positioned DVB-I as a central component of this transition, describing it as the “glue for a hybrid world” connecting broadcast and broadband while avoiding market fragmentation and safeguarding universal access.
Concrete progress on DVB-I deployment underlined its strategic importance. Freeview New Zealand confirmed plans for a nationwide rollout this year, while Germany’s DVB-I Round Table, bringing together public and commercial broadcasters, regulators and industry bodies, is targeting a market launch in September 2026. In Ireland, RTÉ’s Jim Higgins announced a DVB-I trial on the Saorview platform starting in June and running until November to gather operational insights.
Beyond distribution, the conference – moderated by Eoghan O’Sullivan – highlighted a broader technological shift. In his keynote, EBU Director of Technology & Innovation Antonio Arcidiacono described the next phase of media evolution as a move “from transport to intelligence”, driven by network capabilities and AI-powered services at the edge. AI emerged as a consistent theme throughout the event, with speakers pointing to its integration into TV sets as a catalyst for new approaches to video compression and personalisation, enabling user data to be processed locally without leaving the device.
From a user perspective, SVT’s Head of Innovation Adde Granberg argued that audience experience must take precedence over technical optimisation. He called for a shift from “one-to-many” broadcasting towards “many-to-meaningful” engagement, warning that traditional broadcast structures may not endure in their current form.
Several sessions explored DVB-I’s role within an increasingly platform-driven ecosystem. Ralph Edeine (Eutelsat) said the standard would help maintain the visibility of satellite services in interface-led environments, while Salvatore Martino (Kineton) highlighted both the need for centralised aggregation and ongoing challenges around stream authenticity. Industry participants broadly agreed that “DVB-I works”, but noted that interoperability, regulatory alignment and metadata complexity require more preparation than expected.
On the device side, Vincent Grivet (HbbTV Association) pointed to persistent fragmentation in the connected TV market, where broadcasters must support multiple “walled garden” platforms. He positioned HbbTV and DVB-I as complementary, with HbbTV unifying devices and DVB-I harmonising networks and content sources.
Developer perspectives were also in focus. Hyunmin Jeon, winner of the DVB-I UI competition, presented an Android-based application built around DVB-I metadata and familiar streaming interfaces, announcing that the source code will be made publicly available. She emphasised the importance of metadata, describing it as essential for content discovery and user retention.
Alongside DVB-I, the conference examined adjacent technologies. A session on 5G Broadcast with Qualcomm’s Thomas Stockhammer and Media Broadcast’s Markus Schneider highlighted ongoing challenges including unclear business models, limited device ecosystems and competition from unicast delivery. Potential use cases identified included live events, emergency alerting and CDN offload. Meanwhile, discussions on DVB Native IP (DVB-NIP) pointed to strong potential, particularly for bridging the digital divide, although further work is needed on DRM and addressable advertising.
The second day followed DVB World’s established “unconference” format, with participants shaping an agenda of 18 sessions covering topics such as DVB-I service discovery at internet scale, AI agents, open-source tooling, accessibility and future codec development. A parallel “Learning Lab” introduced technical tutorials on areas including DVB-T2/5G Broadcast integration, DVB-I DRM and addressable advertising.
