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IBC is the media and broadcast industry’s annual proving ground, the place where ideas are tested, partnerships are forged, and the themes shaping the year ahead are set in motion.
For Framedrop, IBC 2025 was especially memorable: it was our first time exhibiting. We chose the brand new Future Tech hall to call home for the duration and far from being a quiet experiment, it turned out to be a hub of some of the most senior, focused, and future-facing conversations we’ve ever had.
If IBC serves as a barometer for the industry, 2025 told a clear story: efficiency is now the frontline. And the tools reshaping that story, particularly AI, are no longer curiosities. They are fast becoming necessities.
Here are our five biggest takeaways from the week, and why they matter.
1. The story everyone is telling
If you boiled down the hundreds of conversations we had into one word, it would be “efficiency.” Not the accountant’s version - “do more with less” - but the operational version: create, distribute, and monetise content faster, smarter, and at scale.
At the Framedrop booth, across the Future Tech stage and even deeper into the conference program, the theme came up repeatedly. Executives spoke about the pressure of rights deals, the fragmentation of audiences across platforms, and the reality that production budgets are not keeping pace with demand. More content is expected, in more formats, for more destinations, yet with the same headcount and resources.
This is where AI has shifted from curiosity to core. Metadata generation, shot-selection, highlight assembly, formatting, versioning, compliance checks, distribution… all areas where automation can deliver hours back to production teams. Productivity gains aren't abstract anymore; they’re measurable, operational, and urgent.
As ITV CTO Simon Farnsworth noted during the CTO Roundtable, the broadcaster already has “250 live use cases of genAI applications or agents” embedded in workflows. Crucially, he added that the focus has shifted from cost savings to growth: automation isn’t just about trimming hours, it’s about unlocking capacity to serve audiences better. The BBC made this clear too: in its own update on generative AI, they highlighted how AI is already helping to publish reporting across the globe more quickly. It’s a practical example of AI shifting from experiment to production tool, shaving critical minutes off fast-turnaround workflows.
For Framedrop, this was industry validation. Our mission; to clip, version, add editorial value and distribute live content instantly across digital channels sits at the heart of the streamlining challenge. At IBC, executives didn’t ask “could this work?” They asked “how quickly can we get this into our workflows?”
2. Live content is under more pressure than ever
If efficiency was the broad theme, live content distribution was the sharpest focal point.
Sports rights holders told us they can’t wait hours for highlights. A sponsor’s brand is worth more when it appears in the moment, not a day later. Audience habits are shaped by TikTok, YouTube Shorts, and instant replays on social media and they won’t tolerate lag.
The Future Tech stage underlined this shift. Panelists debated whether the traditional “highlight show” even has a future, or whether automated, real-time clipping will make it obsolete.
At our stand, the questions we heard were refreshingly blunt:
- Can you deliver moments in minutes?
- How accurate is the AI at picking highlights?
- How does it integrate with our existing workflows?
No one was asking if AI could help. They were asking how soon. That urgency from seasoned broadcast executives, not just innovation scouts, tells us live is where the operational speed-to-market battle is most acute.
Formula 1’s Ruth Buscombe summed it up well on stage: “AI capabilities make capturing video less labour-intensive.” For a sport built on speed, she explained, the ability to create social edits and compare overtakes in near-real-time shows how efficiency is directly tied to fan engagement.
3. Future Tech has arrived as a serious hub
For a newly rebranded hall, the calibre of conversations was striking. CTOs, COOs, and production heads weren’t wandering out of curiosity; they had specific problems to solve and roadmaps to accelerate. The Future Tech stage carried weight too, sessions were led by seasoned industry leaders, not just speculative futurists.
For Framedrop, it was the perfect place to debut. As a first-time exhibitor, we could hardly have asked for a better launchpad. The hall had its own momentum, its own sense of gravity. And given the energy we witnessed, we expect it to become even bigger and more central in 2026.
4. Established vendors are leaning into integration
One of the more refreshing patterns this year was the openness of established vendors. Companies with decades of broadcast pedigree were not treating AI start-ups as threats. They were asking how we could integrate and we saw it across categories.
The message was clear: agility and scale are not in conflict. They can reinforce each other. And a streamlined operation won’t come from a single vendor or tool, it will come from workflows where agile AI tools slot seamlessly into established infrastructures.
That spirit of collaboration is encouraging. It means AI innovation won’t sit on the fringes. It will be embedded, amplified, and scaled.
5. The conversation has shifted from hype to deployment
Perhaps the clearest signal of all: AI has moved beyond the hype cycle.
The DPP Espresso Summit discussions on AI were pragmatic, not speculative. Executives compared notes on deployments, debated interoperability, and highlighted ROI. The Future Tech stage drilled into specifics: from metadata accuracy to ethical safeguards to integration overheads. This is a far cry from the “what if” debates of just a few years ago. The mood has shifted to:
- How fast can we deploy?
- How do we integrate with legacy workflows?
- What’s the tangible value we’ll see this quarter, not next decade?
Warner Bros. Discovery CTO Avi Saxena captured the scale of the change: “The amount of metadata that can be extracted is insane,” he said, pointing to how AI is already generating revenue. “We cannot have an army of humans tagging live content for every goal, yellow card or record being broken. We can and are using AI to detect key moments. Cues can be based on the tone of a commentator’s voice or spectators’ interactions. We can scale that to any sport or country”. And at the BBC, Director General Tim Davie framed AI adoption in their Annual Plan 2025/26 as part of a “major programme of organisational reform” to make the corporation “more streamlined, more agile.” From metadata to management strategy, efficiency has moved from buzzword to boardroom priority.
For Framedrop, this was the most exciting takeaway. Our first IBC wasn’t about explaining why AI matters, it was about demonstrating how quickly it can be deployed to solve pressing, real-world problems.
Looking ahead
IBC 2025 showed us a future where efficiency defines success, live content sets the pace, and innovation is no longer fringe but core. For Framedrop, this validates our path, and it’s just the beginning.
The week also reinforced that these insights aren’t just theoretical; broadcasters and rights holders are actively testing and deploying AI-driven workflows to accelerate production, streamline operations, and reach audiences faster. Seeing these conversations unfold across panels, demos, and hands-on discussions made it clear that the industry as a whole is moving toward measurable, real-world productivity gains.
So, although this was Framedrop’s first IBC, it will not be our last. The conversations we had with broadcasters, sports organisations, and vendors told us we are addressing real, urgent needs.
Our next stop is NAB New York 2025, where we’ll continue the conversation about productivity and speed-to-market in live workflows, and AI’s role in making media operations faster, smarter, and more impactful.
And looking further ahead to IBC 2026? Expect the Future Tech hall to be bigger, busier, and even more central. The gravity has shifted and it’s only pulling stronger.