Rick Holtman

THE NEW PLAYBOOK FOR LIVE SPORTS Streaming isn’t replacing traditional distribution — it’s expanding what’s possible. With the FCC now examining the migration of sports rights to streaming platforms, the conversation isn’t about winners and losers. It’s about how the entire ecosystem evolves to serve fans, leagues, and brands at the same time. Live sports remain the most powerful engine for real-time connection in media. What’s changing is how — and where — that connection happens. A few open questions shaping the next era: 👉 What does “mass reach” mean when audiences are spread across platforms? 👉 How will media plans adapt to simultaneous broadcast + streaming ecosystems? 👉 What balance best serves both revenue growth and fan accessibility? 👉 How will measurement evolve to reflect true cross-platform impact? 👉 What new opportunities emerge for innovation in fan experience? Streaming has unlocked global distribution, richer data, and new forms of engagement that didn’t exist a decade ago. At the same time, major live events still function as shared cultural moments — the kind that bring entire communities together. This isn’t a transition away from anything. It’s an expansion into something bigger. The future of live sports will likely be hybrid, multi-platform, and audience-centric -not defined by any single channel. For brands, leagues, and media companies, the real opportunity isn’t choosing sides. It’s designing strategies that meet fans wherever they are. Curious how others are thinking about this shift -especially those planning for major tentpole events over the next few years.

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Attention sports fans! The future of sports entertainment is here. The shift to digital delivery of traditional media has led to the rise of linear streaming. However, this transition to new consumption methods presents its own challenges. The fragmented nature of current sports rights deals often makes it difficult for fans to find out where and how to watch their local teams. #nba #localtv

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A few takeaways from Connected TV World Summit: The industry is "consolidating while audiences fragment," and operators are doubling down on QoS, partnerships, and live sports to stay competitive. The "set-top box isn’t dead yet", even as younger viewers shift to apps and AI drives up chipset costs. Meanwhile, sports piracy (>$30B annually) is surging and increasingly linked to organised crime — making solutions like EZDRM’s Precision Envelope Management (PEM), with DRM-agnostic dynamic key rotation, more important than ever. DM me to schedule a conversation to learn more. #CTVWS26 #ConnectedTVWorldSummit #DRM #DRMaaS #Piracy

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Broadcast Tech's #Archive and #Restoration Forum last week brought together some insightful and forward-thinking industry leaders to discuss the urgent challenges and opportunities facing content preservation. ⏰ The Clock is Ticking Perhaps the most sobering revelation: we have approximately 18 months left for video head availability. The message from the panel was clear – restore now, not later. UNESCO's 2025 targets may have passed, but the work is far from complete. 🟰 The Cultural Equity Challenge Heidi Shakespeare from MEMNON raised a critical concern that deserves more attention: cultural preservation is becoming a privilege of wealthy nations. As third-world countries struggle to afford digitisation, we risk what she called "cultural genocide" – the loss of entire cultural narratives simply because they lack the resources to preserve them. Tim Forrest from ITN emphasised that not everything could be restored. There are multiple libraries with content in very different states of repair, and it had to be done sooner rather than later. 💡 AI: Tool, Not Replacement The AI discussion was refreshingly pragmatic. Deep Fusion Films Benjamin Field pointed out AI can compress a 5-6 week production timeline to 5 days with the help of Weavr.ai Yes, it can help identify duplicate content and assess audience appropriateness. The consistent message: AI assists, it doesn't replace. Creative judgment and human oversight remain essential. Ad Signal Tom Dunning highlighted we have to be strategic about what we digitise and restore. Technologies like #match can help de-duplicate content and ensure only the best version is restored. 🧑‍🎓 The Skills Gap Crisis British Film Institute (BFI) Kieron Webb highlighted a concerning reality: there's no structured education pathway in the UK for the next generation of film archivists. As we race against technological obsolescence, we're also racing against a skills shortage. 👍 Looking Forward The BFI National Archive's new RICHes (Moving Image Conservation Research Lab) opening next year offers hope, but we need more investment in both technology and talent development. Iron Mountain's Andrea Kalas took us through early technologies, the fears and concerns about early colourisation of black and white classics - the key point being to LEARN from history and drive AI rather than be driven by AI. 🤔 What struck me most: this isn't just about preserving the past – it's about ensuring diverse stories remain accessible for future generations and cultures. AI enables more content to be created that otherwise would be cost-prohibitive and not available. But then the question of quality and regulation springs to mind. Discuss! 🌟 This was SUCH an insightful event and great to see familiar faces and old friends. Well done Charlotte Wheeler and team! There was much to take in and not enough time to write it all.

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As a marketing leader in iGaming, I have experienced the frustration of stagnant programmatic performance. You purchase a "High-Value Bettor" segment from a data provider, yet your CPAs remain high. Why is this happening? The answer lies in the fact that segment has been sold to every other sportsbook in the country. Targeting isn’t broken; it’s exhausted. At Cool Prevails, we believe the next era of growth is not about buying pre-built lists, but about owning the data layer. We are assisting Casino brands in building a proprietary moat by combining: - Real-time Intent: Identifying players as they engage with content across 750k+ publishers - Wealth & Behavioral Data: $300M+ 400 consumer attributes, including income, credit card ownership, and lifestyle - Website Deanonymization: Identifying the individuals behind your anonymous site traffic The result? Our partners have seen an average 25% drop in CPA by moving away from commodity programmatic segments and utilizing their own "God-tier" datasets. It's time to stop renting stale data and start owning the player profile. Read the full breakdown on the "Proprietary Player Moat" here: https://lnkd.in/g2z6cBc9 #iGaming #CasinoMarketing #ProgrammaticAdvertising #DataOwnership #PearlDiver

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Identity isn't 'coming back'. It never left. What's changed is the urgency. Signal loss, fragmented ID's and rising media costs are forcing brands to get serious about how they recognize customers across channels. This piece does a good job grounding where identity actually stands today...what's real, what's noise and why first-party data and interoperability matter more than ever. This is the conversation I'm having every day with brands trying to move from experimentation to execution. Worth the read. 👉🏼 https://lnkd.in/g46KJ-bg

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🤖 What makes advanced #ContextualAI stand out? Nowadays, everyone claims to offer AI-powered contextual advertising, but capabilities can vary greatly. Kartal Göksel, CTO at Seedtag, joins Advertising Week to break down AI efficacy and what sets advanced contextual AI apart from other solutions. Truly advanced AI-powered contextual advertising should: 🔗 Integrate data across channels 🌐 Understand context at scale 🎯 Be fine-tuned with industry-specific insights Learn more: https://lnkd.in/emr8tYz9 #CrossChannel #AdTech #LLMs

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Brandon Szuminsky and the UPMC team are setting the bar for internal comms at scale.�� Reaching 100,000 employees with content that feels local, relevant, and genuinely useful — that’s not easy. But their approach shows what happens when personalization meets strategy.    Worth a look if you care about comms that actually works: https://lnkd.in/eQ6_59kU

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Mistakes CTOs make - 🚫 NO #4 – Assuming Monitoring Is Just a Checkbox I’ve seen too many teams feel comfortable just because “there’s a NOC.” Monitoring isn’t about having screens. It’s about catching problems before they reach your audience. There’s a big difference between: Reacting when the client calls VS Calling the client before they even notice In broadcast, small issues matter: Audio sync / SCTE accuracy / OTT stability / Signal quality degradation If your provider only confirms signal presence, you’re not being protected — you’re being observed. If I’m would need to ask a CTO, I ask one thing: Will they know before your operator does? If not, it’s not proactive monitoring. It’s reactive support.

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Cloud-based media solutions streamline live content production, enhancing agility and scalability. Discover the future of media operations: https://lnkd.in/gTwVj4kM #CloudSolutions #LiveProduction 🚀

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Most people think strategy is about planning. It’s not. It’s about positioning. And most vendors never make that leap. A few years ago, I help launch Crave.com’s new video streaming service. High visibility. Tight timelines. Complex tech. We had to orchestrate UX, video pipelines, analytics, vendors, and business teams across web, mobile, and 10ft platforms. It wasn’t just about shipping features—it was about shaping how users engaged with content in a crowded market. That experience taught me something I carry into every engagement: Being strategic isn’t about having all the answers—it’s about asking better questions, aligning teams around a vision, and delivering clarity in complexity. And here’s what I’ve learned since—through experience, not theory: 👉 Being busy is the enemy of being strategic. I used to pride myself on responsiveness. Speed. Execution. But constant busyness kept me reactive. Strategic brands pause. They think. They curate. Silence, used intentionally, is a power move. 👉 You don’t need more credentials—you need a sharper point of view. Thought leadership isn’t earned through tenure. It’s earned through courage. Strategic brands say what others won’t. They challenge assumptions. They provoke. 👉 You’re already doing strategic work—you’re just not naming it. Most vendors solve complex problems. That’s strategy. The issue isn’t capability—it’s positioning. Strategic brands speak in outcomes, not deliverables. 👉 You don’t need permission to lead—you need conviction. Waiting for clients to “see you differently” is a trap. You have to show up differently first. Publish. Reframe. Lead. 👉 Execution is not your edge—your lens is. The way you interpret trends, connect dots, and challenge norms? That’s your strategic value. Not the speed of your deliverables. 👉 The less you do, the more strategic you become. Strategic brands don’t chase every opportunity. They say no often. They protect their brand equity by being selective. --- This isn’t a motivational post. It’s a wake-up call. You don’t need to be louder. You need to be clearer. You don’t need to do more. You need to think deeper. You don’t need to wait. You need to start. You are capable of becoming a strategic brand. Not someday. Not after another certification. Now.

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Fans want more than just a stream. They expect: ⚡ Low latency 📱 Seamless interaction 💸 Monetization that feels native eSports is setting the pace. Can traditional sports keep up? 📘 Discover how top OTT platforms are rethinking fan experience: https://okt.to/WYk4TR

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Amazon just took a huge step toward owning your living room. And independent DSPs are cooked! Let me explain what happened ... The Fire TV maker is teaming up with Roku—the #1 CTV platform in the U.S.—to launch a massive joint ad network. Together, they now control access to 80% of connected TV households in the U.S. Amazon’s DSP will power ad placement across both Fire TV and Roku Channel. 💡Why does this matter? Because it’s not Netflix vs. Disney anymore. Arguably it never was. It’s Fire TV vs. Roku vs. Samsung vs. Google TV. Silicon Valley vs. Asian OEMs. This is a hardware + OS war for the TV home screen - and Amazon just moved into a commanding position. If Amazon ends up acquiring Roku (as many now predict for 2026), it won’t just be the biggest CTV deal of the decade. It would be the final blow to independent DSPs like The Trade Desk. I still don't get it!? Because whoever owns the OS, owns the pipes. No OS access = no data, no placement, no power. The Trade Desk has spent years building algorithms to optimize CTV buys. But if Roku and Fire TV stop giving them inventory or data, or price it up, it’s game over. And building a competing OS? Too late. Amazon just blocked the last open lane. CTV ad spend is expected to hit $30B in the U.S. Owning the operating system means owning: ✅ Ad inventory ✅ Audience data ✅ Content discovery ✅ The future of streaming itself. Shout-out to Anna K. for all the killer adtech insights on our flight form Cannes Lions to Vienna. (Anna, I ultimately missed my connection and had to overnight - Tafelspitz at Plachutta made it worth it 😅) 💬 What’s your take: Is Amazon about to buy Roku? And what does that mean for the rest of the CTV stack? #CTV #Amazon #Roku #AdTech

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Triton Digital is one of seven companies that launched the Ad Context Protocol, designed to unify advertising across platforms through AI-based agents. AdCP itself is intended to standardize how the agents communicate. The companies believe agentic advertising will improve campaign management. Triton's Jean-Luc Wasmer told me: "A buyer can simply focus on the target audience and ask, 'Where should I be advertising this product?'" Read my interview with him here: https://lnkd.in/e3qg52Ek

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The conventional wisdom in the streaming TV industry - especially among the journalists covering it - is that it is nearly impossible to quantify who is watching shows and why. I recently spoke with Ron Cohen, SVP of Practice Leadership at Claritas LLC and Mike Bloxham, EVP of Global Media and Entertainment at Magid about their new SubScape Streaming Segments partnership and I learned that in this case, conventional wisdom is very, very wrong. https://lnkd.in/guARTrTD

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Huge News For Radio. More people listen to radio now than 20 years ago, but it hasn't been measured with the same precision as digital - until now. The pixel based solution from MagellenAI will measure radio attribution the same as podcasts showing the true impact of a full audio stack. https://lnkd.in/geU3XuqH

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Most companies think they know what their broadcast monitoring costs. They usually only see the invoice. 𝗘𝗣𝗜𝗦𝗢𝗗𝗘 𝟭 — 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗣𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗲 𝗧𝗮𝗴 𝗜𝗹𝗹𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 (Swipe through the slides →) 𝗟𝗶𝗻𝗸𝗲𝗱𝗜𝗻 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗦𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙃𝙞𝙙𝙙𝙚𝙣 𝙋𝙧𝙞𝙘𝙚 𝙤𝙛 𝘽𝙧𝙤𝙖𝙙𝙘𝙖𝙨𝙩 𝙈𝙤𝙣𝙞𝙩𝙤𝙧𝙞𝙣𝙜 A 7-Episode Thought-Leadership Series When broadcast monitoring subscriptions are up for renewal and companies review costs, do they look competitive in today’s market? Is the data feed reasonably priced? On paper, everything can look good, but what happens when we run a different kind of audit? Most companies evaluate monitoring platforms by comparing price tags. But the price tag only covers the front end and the data feed itself. What it rarely accounts for is the back-end cost: the employee hours required to turn raw data into something usable. It also doesn’t reflect the limitations in coverage and quality that only become visible when you actually need the data. Gaps in channel reach, inconsistent clip quality, or content that simply wasn’t captured. 𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘀𝗲 𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗲𝗱 𝘂𝗽, 𝘁𝗵𝗲 “𝗰𝗵𝗲𝗮𝗽𝗲𝗿” 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺 𝗶𝘀 𝗼𝗳𝘁𝗲𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗻𝘀𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗼𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗼𝗼𝗺.

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Content Discovery and content promotion/recommendation needs more than patching. As content availability has significantly increased through Internet available content, network-less operators like Amazon, Netflix and YouTubeTV, the current user experiences of user interfaces in schedule time grids and poster arrays of assets fail to scale as they were developed to cope with relatively small numbers of linear services and on demand assets. We need new paradigms for user interfaces for finding content to watch, whilst serving the business needs of commercial and regulatory prominence and recommendations. This is an error where we are focusing on new concepts of content discovery as part of Kolab Group.

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