The Road to 2026: What’s Next for TV, Streaming and Content Delivery
As 2025 draws to a close, the television and streaming industry enters a new phase of maturity. Streaming is no longer the challenger; it is the system, deeply embedded in how audiences discover, consume and engage with video. With scale largely achieved, the focus is now shifting toward refinement: sustainable growth, better experiences and smarter ways of delivering value to both viewers and operators.
The next phase will not be defined by a single breakthrough, but by convergence. Content formats are blending, business models are evolving, and infrastructure is becoming more intelligent, automated and resilient. According to AgileTV’s product leadership, 2026 will be the year when many of today’s experiments crystallize into industry standards.
At the center of this shift is a redefinition of the TV platform itself.
TV Platforms become modular, adaptive ecosystems
The idea of TVaaS as a monolithic platform is fading. In its place, operators are assembling modular ecosystems that combine premium SVOD, FAST channels, live TV, short-form video and local content, all within a single, flexible framework.
André Rosado, Head of Product at AgileTV, sees this as a fundamental change in how platforms are designed. “TVaaS is evolving into a true modular ecosystem,” he notes, one that allows operators to adapt quickly to market demands while mixing very different content types and commercial models.
This flexibility is becoming essential as content convergence accelerates. Long-form series, live events, creator-driven formats and short-form video increasingly coexist on the same screen. Platforms must ingest and manage all of them, often with different rights, presentation rules and monetization logic, without adding operational complexity.
Short-form content, in particular, is no longer confined to social platforms. Vertical video and micro-series are influencing mainstream TV storytelling and UI design, pushing platforms to support native short-form rails, adaptive layouts and seamless switching between portrait and landscape modes. What once served as promotional material is becoming premium content in its own right.
Personalization moves from feature to foundation
As choice expands, discovery becomes the real battleground. By 2026, personalization will no longer be limited to recommendations. Entire interfaces will adapt dynamically based on context: device, time of day, location and user behavior.
This shift toward context-aware experiences is echoed across AgileTV’s product roadmap. Santiago Rodríguez (TV Platform Lead) highlights how home screens are evolving into “attention hubs,” blending live TV, on-demand content, FAST channels, short-form video and even non-video services. The implication is clear: static layouts are giving way to AI-driven interfaces that reorganize themselves in real time.
Behind the scenes, AI is also transforming editorial workflows. Manual curation is increasingly replaced by AI-assisted catalog organization, automated metadata enrichment and dynamic page layouts. According to Rosado, AI is moving from a supporting role into orchestration, shaping how content is packaged, promoted and surfaced for each viewer.
Business models tighten, FAST matures
If the past decade was about scale, the next will be about sustainability. Streaming services are now openly prioritizing profitability over raw subscriber growth. Price increases, ad-supported tiers and stricter account policies are becoming standard practice rather than controversial moves.
Jonathan Pollac (TV Platform PM) points to the maturation of FAST as one of the clearest signals of this shift. Once seen as a low-value add-on, FAST channels are becoming more curated, more thematic and more attractive to advertisers, with improved targeting and measurement. At the same time, niche and passion-led content — from sports to lifestyle and anime — is finding loyal audiences, often bundled into larger aggregation platforms.
Advertising itself is evolving. Contextual and shoppable formats, QR codes and interactive overlays are gaining traction on connected TVs, while advertisers push for cross-platform measurement that spans linear, streaming and social video. The result is a more complex but also more flexible commercial landscape.
Live sports, CDN and the new baseline for resilience
Despite the decline of traditional pay TV, live sports, news and major events remain its strongest assets, and among the most valuable in streaming. With global events such as the FIFA World Cup on the horizon, delivery resilience and content protection are moving from differentiators to baseline requirements.
Pepe Madrona (CDN Product Manager) notes that multi-CDN strategies are no longer “insurance policies,” but active optimization tools. Operators are increasingly orchestrating traffic across public and telco CDNs to balance cost, performance and regulatory constraints. At the same time, scrutiny of egress costs and delivery efficiency is intensifying as video traffic continues to outpace revenue growth.
Security is inseparable from this equation. Premium rights holders are demanding end-to-end protection, with CDN layers tightly integrated into broader anti-piracy and content security strategies. Policy-driven routing, location-aware delivery and real-user monitoring are becoming standard practice, especially for high-value live content.
A parallel shift is underway in how performance is measured. Rather than focusing solely on latency or throughput, customers are moving toward QoE-based guarantees (startup time, rebuffering and error rates), making user experience the ultimate KPI.
AI everywhere, quietly
If there is one constant across all predictions for 2026, it is the pervasive role of AI. Not as a headline feature, but as an invisible layer embedded throughout the TV value chain.
AI is already reshaping localization, subtitling, promo creation and recommendation engines. Looking ahead, it will increasingly power predictive monitoring, automated UI layouts, dynamic pricing models and even personalized content variations. In delivery infrastructure, AI is influencing routing decisions, anomaly detection and operational automation.
At the same time, its growing role in pre and post-production — from storyboarding to VFX assistance — is raising questions around labor, regulation and transparency. Talent agreements and union negotiations are beginning to address AI usage explicitly, signaling that governance will evolve alongside capability.
Looking ahead
By 2026, TV will be less about channels and apps, and more about systems: intelligent, adaptive ecosystems that respond in real time to viewers, content and context. The boundaries between formats will continue to blur, while expectations around quality, security and personalization rise across the board.
For AgileTV, this future is not theoretical. Building modular TVaaS platforms, orchestrating resilient delivery and embedding AI across operations are already part of today’s work. The challenge, and the opportunity, lies in turning complexity into simplicity for operators, and choice into clarity for viewers.
The industry is entering its next chapter with cautious optimism. The tools are maturing, the models are stabilizing, and the direction is clear. What comes next will not just redefine television. It will redefine how we experience it.
