By Ali Hodjat
The DPP Leaders’ Briefing isn’t a typical industry conference. For those who haven’t attended, it takes a uniquely structured approach: major media organizations across the US, UK, and Europe each get exactly fifteen minutes to present their top three challenges and/or priorities for the year ahead. These range from long-established broadcasters like the BBC, ITV, and France Télévisions to digital-era platforms such as YouTube, TikTok, and Tubi.
The format is intentionally strict: no marketing slides, no filler, and, perhaps most importantly, no attributions. Presenters speak plainly about what’s working, what isn’t, and what they need from the vendors sitting in the audience. It’s one of the few industry events where customers can be unfiltered about their expectations of technology partners, and vendors can hear, firsthand, where they’re falling short or where the opportunities really lie.
Every year brings a different emphasis, but consistent themes always emerge. Naturally, AI dominated the 2025 conversations, but the tone has shifted. The industry is no longer talking about AI as hype, novelty, or a badge of innovation. The dialogue has become more focused on practical outcomes: what AI is actually delivering, where it’s failing, and how it fits into broader operational and strategic priorities.
Across broadcasters, streamers, and technology providers, the message was consistent: the era of experimentation is ending, and that of purposeful, strategic, interoperable transformation has begun.
Below are my reflections on the themes that defined this year’s event and what they can tell us about where our industry is heading.
AI & Automation: From FOMO to Functional Use
AI is officially ubiquitous; when a presenter asked for a show of hands from anyone not implementing or experimenting with AI in any form, not a single hand went up. That’s not to say it’s reached its full potential – nowhere near it. Many leaders admitted they’ve only finally moved past the FOMO phase, where “being seen doing something with AI” mattered more than delivering value. One presenter shared that more than 250 AI initiatives are in motion, but 75% still don’t meet ROI targets.
What’s changed is the industry’s mindset. Instead of treating AI as a silver bullet, companies are now positioning it as a conductor inside the workflow. Agentic AI came up repeatedly – software agents that understand intent, automate tasks, and collaborate with humans while preserving creative judgment. This is not about replacing editors, producers, or engineers, but about removing friction so creative energy can flow where it matters most.
The takeaways:
- AI is not a strategy in and of itself; it should be treated as an operational layer, embedded into existing workflows, tools, and production processes.
- Many noted the danger of “AI hype” and the difficulty of going from pilots to enterprise-wide impact. The key is to demonstrate success on a micro level, then scale up.
- Broadcasters, publishers, and platforms are under intense pressure to show ROI. There are real fears that the value of AI is incremental, and price increases aren’t yet justified.
Trust, Ethics & AI Governance Take Center Stage
From one broadcaster’s promise to never fabricate facts to the push for C2PA-backed transparency, the message was clear: No AI strategy is complete without an AI governance strategy. This includes:
- Verifiable content provenance
- Consistent disclosure when AI is used
- Guardrails against misuse or hallucination
- Auditability across automated systems
Our industry is nothing without our audiences, and trust is a crucial component in this relationship. So while it may not be “sexy,” AI cannot exist without guardrails. Media organizations are looking to us, the vendors, to help them navigate with the right tools and technology to deliver.
Cloud & Infrastructure: Cloud as Default, but Not Absolute
Gone are the days when cloud debates centered on “if.” At this year’s conference, multiple speakers reiterated that cloud is now the operational default, especially for ingest, post-production, and playout. One broadcaster declared “Cloud is the new normal,” and in CEO/CTO surveys, both C-suite executives on either side of the vendor/customer relationship listed cloud product development as the top strategic priority.
Cost, Resilience & Multi-Cloud Pragmatism
This shift isn’t without caution. Several broadcasters cited concerns like:
- Cloud outages are real and disruptive.
- Costs can spiral without governance.
- Workflows need resilience beyond a single provider.
The emerging consensus: Cloud is essential, but hybrid, cost-aware, and failure-resilient architectures are the way forward.
Content Supply Chain & Workflow Transformation: Orchestrate, Don’t Patchwork
If there was one area where the industry signaled its readiness for significant change, it was the content supply chain. Legacy systems are stretched to their breaking point. Teams are expected to distribute more content across more platforms in more formats, faster than ever, with fewer people and tighter budgets. The gap between where organizations are today and where they need to be is widening, and leaders were clear that incremental, patchwork improvements won’t close it.
That being said, a third of media tech CEOs believe the industry could reach an advanced state of supply chain maturity within three years. The rest openly acknowledge the gap: we can’t keep doing the same things with old technology. The call was for disruption – one presenter even said they expect vendors to “surprise me,” reflecting how strong the appetite is for something radically different.
Organizations want simplified, unified architectures. Convergence is viewed as the only path to reducing complexity, and AI is expected to be the engine that makes it possible. Whether you have one storage system or ten, the real value comes from intelligent orchestration that understands the content, the context, and the intended outcome. AI-driven acceleration came up repeatedly, not just as a helper, but as the core layer that manages workflows, metadata, QC, versioning, and delivery. Agentic AI was highlighted as a meaningful step forward, reducing friction and enabling faster decisions by understanding the context around content.
Removing the Cognitive Load to Supercharge Creativity
Despite the focus on automation, leaders repeatedly emphasized that human creativity, editorial judgment, communication, and problem-solving will matter even more. As workflows become more AI-driven and cloud-native, teams need the soft skills to adapt, collaborate, and shape new operating models. A fascinating callback to a distant memory was shared: broadcast workflows were once defined by the length of a cable; the next generation will be defined by imagination, flexibility, and strategy.
Audience, Personalization & Engagement: From Formats to Fandom
In one session, a presenter brought up linear TV of yesteryear: you watched your favorite programs on the day and time they were scheduled each week. If you missed it, you could only hope to catch the rerun in a month or so. Today, media lives on demand, and consumption is a personalized experience. A few presenters championed a shift from “programming for formats” to “programming for fandom.” Younger audiences don’t think in terms of linear schedules or device constraints. They think in terms of:
- Relevance
- Personality
- Community
- Perspective
- Habit
Broadcasters reinforced that personalization is not just about algorithms; it’s also about metadata maturity, multi-format adaptability, and real-time audience understanding.
Monetization & New Advertising Models
The monetization conversation also evolved, with the discussion of:
- Flexible pay-to-skip models.
- The new legitimacy of premium AVOD with NFL and Super Bowl scale.
- Advanced ACR-based ad tracking and data partnerships.
The takeaway: Monetization strategies must reflect new consumption habits, not outdated distribution processes. Audiences reward personalization. Advertisers reward measurability. Successful media players will prioritize both.
Vendor Partnerships & Ecosystem Collaboration: Beyond Transactions
As mentioned, the DPP Leaders Briefing offers a level of candor not typically seen in conference settings. As such, the conversations centered around vendor relationships were eye-opening, even emotionally charged.
One presenter had a particularly jaw-dropping headline (you had to be there). It was a statement aimed squarely at vendors who assume lock-in, push aggressive price hikes (lately attributed to the AI bubble), or ship products that mirror their internal org charts rather than customer needs.
While the comment was intended to grab attention (and get some laughs), it was a fair warning. Broadcasters want:
- Transparent pricing
- Real ROI, not AI-taxed bundles
- Shared roadmaps
- Open standards
- Composable architectures
- Sandboxes to test, not slide decks to oversell
- Co-innovation, not vendor-led mandates
This statement summarizes the sentiment best: “The build vs. buy debate is over. The answer is build with.” The future of this industry will be shaped not by monopolies or one-size-fits-all platforms, but by interconnected, flexible ecosystems grounded in trust.
The Refreshing Honesty of the DPP Leaders Briefing
As in past years, this year’s DPP Leaders Briefing demonstrated a level of clarity invaluable to us vendors. It’s easy to get caught up in the hype of exciting shows like IBC and NAB (and there’s nothing inherently wrong with that!), but talking about the practical realities of delivering on the promises made on the trade show floor reminds us that these are real technical and business challenges that our customers rely on us to help them overcome.
So here are some final thoughts based on what we heard from the many impressive speakers who gave their time and expertise at the event:
- Scale with purpose: Modernize systems and workflows to handle the volume, speed, and complexity of today’s content.
- Innovate responsibly: Embed trust, ethics, governance, and transparency into every AI-driven capability.
- Collaboration will reap the greatest rewards: Build with partners and embrace open ecosystems rather than proprietary walled gardens.
The result is an industry that is finally moving from possibility to practicality, from hype to real-world transformation, from fragmented workflows to unified orchestration.
And as we continue shaping the next generation of media workflows, one thing is abundantly clear: Technology alone doesn’t define the future; the people and partnerships behind it do.
If this year’s DPP Leaders’ Briefing is any indication, the next chapter of our industry will be defined not just by automation and AI, but by responsibility, openness, and a deep commitment to empowering creators, connecting audiences, and building resilient, intelligent media ecosystems.