IBC Accelerator programme unveils shortlisted projects to pitch at Kickstart Day 2026

The IBC Accelerators Kickstart Day is free to attend and welcomes broadcasters, platforms, studios and key media and technology vendors in the ecosystem, that seek to actively get involved in project development. It gives everyone present the opportunity to get involved and learn more about the programme.

Attendees will also hear from keynote speakers including Sandeep Tiku, CTO at DAZN, and Sinead Greenaway, acting CTO at the BBC, and will discover the winner of the 2025 Accelerator Project of the Year Award. For the first time, this year’s project pitch sessions at IBC Accelerators Kickstart Day will be live-streamed for anyone unable to attend on the day and so that global audiences can view live.

“The diverse range and exceptional quality of project submissions received  this year has made it incredibly challenging to select the shortlisted project ideas to pitch at Kickstart Day,” said Mark Smith, Accelerator Programme Lead. “With a full house expected at the BBC Radio Theatre on 25th Feb, we can’t wait for the 12 media and entertainment tech innovation ideas to be revealed and pitched, alongside some outstanding keynotes, panel discussions and buzzing matchmaking sessions.”

Each project will be guided by ‘Champions’ (leading broadcasters, streaming platforms, studios, and rights owners) who aim to tackle real-life media challenges by leveraging the latest technological advances. Eight of those projects will be chosen to be part of a programme that fast-tracks objectives, solutions and generates effective POCs. The eight chosen projects plus an Incubator (a next phase post an Accelerator project completion – from a POC to an MVP) will then prepare to demonstrate their work at IBC2026, in front of an international audience.

The focus of the Kickstart Day is on the Accelerator challenges and finding the right synergies between the Champions and Participants that will help form the dream team for each project. Further information on the IBC Accelerator programme can be found here.

The 12 projects presenting this year are:

• Ecoflow III: Applied Sustainable Video Delivery (Proposed by ITV, IET, Accedo, Humans Not Robots)
   
• FRAME: Federated Retrieval and Agentic Media Environment (Proposed by RAI, Movielabs, EBU, ETC/Southern California University)
   
• Network Control: Your Connection, Your Choice (Proposed by GSMA Fusion, BBC, Neutral Wireless, University of Strathclyde)
   
• Q-Stream Alpha: The "Tactical Truth" Pipeline (Proposed by IET, BFBS, Tesla Technologies)
   
• Software Defined Workflows for Interoperable Movie and TV Production (Proposed by Movielabs, Holli.st, FX-DMZ and Entertainment Technologists)
   
• AI Powered Delta Streaming: Live Media Reinvented (Proposed by DAZN)
   
• Decision-Ready Sustainable Digital Twins for Broadcast & Virtual Production Studios (Proposed by Digital Catapult, Solve Evolve)
   
• Immersive Festival Live: Remote Presence at Scale (Proposed by SMPTE, MIT Reality Hack, Kings College London, Shure)
   
• Crystal Clear: Boosting Speech Intelligibility in Media (Proposed by Channel 4)
   
• From Broadcast to "Me-Cast": Personalised Broadcasting for the Next Generation of Media Consumption (Proposed by Astro Malaysia, TCS)
   
• AI for Live Sports, powered by Agentic AI for Adaptive Dynamic Content Personalisation, Automation & Monetisation (Proposed by Astro Malaysia, MBC (Middle East Broadcasting Company, TCS)
   
• Incubator 2026: Story Intelligence: The Agentic Production Ecosystem (Proposed by Associated Press, NBCU, ITN, BBC, Channel 4, Al Jazeera, Washington Post)
   

View the IBC Accelerator Kickstart Day Agenda here.

A link to the Kickstart Day livestream is available here.