IBC2025: Transformation approaches

AMSTERDAM — What more needs to be said? Another media show approaches, and the buzz topics on the playbill are AI and streaming.

Of course, the upcoming IBC show in Amsterdam, Sept. 12–15, will have more than just that. 

Because, despite AI and streaming being the elephants in the room, there’s a lot more to the broadcast industry. It has many day-to-day housekeeping issues and requirements that still need to be addressed. And lots of great new gear, services and whatnot that have nothing to do with AI or streaming.

Like its United States-based counterpart, IBC has a show floor packed with products, along with technical papers and information and education sessions in the rooms off the show floor. These will include technical engineering, content production, station operations, as well as regulations, advertising, revenue and business issues. It’s the bread and butter that draws the tens of thousands every year.

Multiple themes

But back to the elephants in the room. At a preshow press conference, the IBC team described the upcoming show’s theme(s) as “It’s grown beyond just television broadcasting,” “It’s all about shaping what’s next,” “A forum for new ideas,” “Catalyst for changes,” etc. IBC CEO Michael Crimp said the show’s theme was “Shaping the future.”

IBC Director Steve Connolly said, “IBC2025 is set to be our most transformative edition yet.”

As if proof were needed, there were more mentions of Google, Amazon and Microsoft than the traditional broadcast incumbents. 

It is clear as ether that these “shifting content models,” “audience shifts” and “platform fragmentation” now weigh heavily on show organizers’ minds. The same is true for the NAB Show in the U.S. and no doubt, BroadcastAsia and the others.

And this changing dynamic we are watching in real-time is also driving imagined and unimaginable opportunities. That’s true not only for the young, whiz-bang digital technology companies, but also for the established “broadcast” players.

IBC Show organizers have set up several events and venues such as Future Tech Stage, Accelerator Innovation Zone and the IBC x Google Cloud Hackfest. A hackfest at a broadcast show?

The times they are a-changin’!

Exhibitors

This story originally appeared in the July/August 2025 edition of RedTech Magazine.

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