Samsung Electronics and Prime Video have introduced HDR10+ ADVANCED, a new version of the HDR10+ picture standard designed to improve brightness, motion handling and overall picture quality on compatible televisions.

Prime Video becomes the first streaming service to support the format globally, with availability beginning this month on Samsung’s 2026 television range.

HDR10+ ADVANCED adds two headline features. Enhanced Overall Brightness uses additional dynamic metadata and AI-powered tone mapping to deliver brighter HDR images while preserving detail in darker scenes. Intelligent Motion Smoothing introduces scene-by-scene metadata that allows compatible TVs to optimise motion processing, aiming to improve sports and fast-moving action without compromising the cinematic look of films.

Samsung said the technology has been developed for the latest generation of high-brightness televisions and builds on the HDR10+ standard first introduced on Prime Video in 2017.

The companies say support will initially be available on selected Prime Video titles worldwide, with Samsung planning to extend HDR10+ ADVANCED across future TV models.

Unlike Dolby Vision, HDR10+ is an open standard backed by Samsung, Amazon and other partners. HDR10+ ADVANCED extends that format with new metadata designed to take advantage of increasingly bright and AI-powered television displays.

However, adoption will depend on broader industry support. At launch, Prime Video is the only streaming platform supporting HDR10+ ADVANCED and Samsung is the only TV manufacturer announcing compatible devices.

Spotify has become the first audio streaming service to surpass 300 million Premium subscribers, helping drive quarterly revenue to €4.8 billion as the company continues to benefit from subscription price increases and growing user numbers.

The streaming platform ended the second quarter with 300 million paying subscribers, up 9% year-on-year, while monthly active users rose 12% to 777 million.

Revenue increased 14% to €4.8 billion, outpacing subscriber growth, reflecting the impact of price increases introduced across several markets over the past year. Operating income reached €655 million, while gross margin improved to a record 33.4%.

Alongside its financial results, Spotify highlighted a series of AI-powered product launches, including conversational search, personalised podcasts, a desktop AI assistant, running playlists and expanded audiobook offerings, as it looks to deepen user engagement beyond music streaming.

Co-CEO Alex Norström said Spotify had reached a level of scale “few companies in history have achieved”, while Co-CEO Gustav Söderström said the company remained in the early stages of developing new AI-driven listening experiences.

The 300 million milestone means Spotify now has roughly three times as many paying subscribers as Apple Music and around twice the scale of its nearest global rival, YouTube Music/Premium, cementing its position as the world’s largest audio streaming service.

Available immediately, wedotv Movies joins the PŸUR line-up on channel 55, giving around three million households access to a free-to-air schedule of films and TV series as part of their basic cable subscription.

The channel is a curated linear version of wedotv’s streaming catalogue, offering a rotating selection of international and European films and series. As a FAST service, it is funded through advertising rather than subscription fees.

Like on its other distribution platforms, wedotv uses HbbTV-based advertising on PŸUR, a wedotv spokesperson confirmed to Broadband TV News. Commercial inventory is delivered through Dynamic Ad Insertion (DAI) and Dynamic Ad Substitution (DAS), enabling advertisers to run programmatic, addressable and context-based campaigns within the live TV signal. The technology also supports precise audience targeting on connected TV devices.

The agreement marks another step in wedotv’s strategy of extending its reach beyond connected TV apps and streaming platforms into traditional linear television distribution. By securing carriage on PŸUR, the company aims to reach viewers who continue to consume content through conventional TV channels.

“The launch of wedotv Movies on PŸUR is another important step in establishing our channels in the German cable market,” said Philipp Rotermund, Founder and CEO of wedotv. “With PŸUR, we have gained a strong partner that provides all the technical requirements to consistently expand our reach in the linear TV environment.”

Marcus Zoll, Director Content at Tele Columbus, added: “With wedotv Movies, we are expanding our programme portfolio with an attractive free-to-air movie channel that complements our line-up perfectly. Through PŸUR, the streaming provider’s content is now also available via our basic cable TV package.”

The launch forms part of wedotv’s continued expansion across German-speaking markets and complements the company’s recently intensified cooperation with technology and distribution partners in the fields of HbbTV, FAST and IP-based television delivery. Alongside wedotv Movies, the company operates channels including wedotv Sports, wedotv Big Stories, wedotv True Stories and wedotv Amor.

The agreement covers AGF-measured free-to-air channels Deluxe Music, Schlager Deluxe and the pay-TV channel Bergblick, as well as FAST Channels Deluxe Rap and Deluxe Dance. The move strengthens Goldvertise’s position in the German-speaking market following its acquisition by High View at the end of 2025.

Until now, advertising sales for the High View channels had been handled by Sky Media. The change comes ahead of the planned integration of Sky Media’s advertising business into RTL Deutschland’s Ad Alliance following RTL’s acquisition of Sky Deutschland, marking the end of a long-standing partnership between Sky Media and Deluxe Music.

According to Goldvertise, Deluxe Music reaches up to 13.4 million viewers per month. The addition of the High View channels expands a portfolio that already includes AGF-measured services such as AXN Black, AXN White, One Terra and Just Cooking.

Alongside audience measurement from AGF Videoforschung, Goldvertise is extending its data capabilities through a partnership with All Eyes on Screens (AEOS), enabling performance measurement for additional specialist channels including Kinowelt TV, Sportdigital Fußball and Sportdigital1+.

The company is also continuing to expand its connected TV business. From September 2026, Goldvertise will begin selling advertising on additional FAST Channels operated by High View and has added music platform Stingray to its portfolio. Existing mandates include Vevo and the FAST Channels available through the O2 platform.

According to Goldvertise, its connected TV offering now delivers more than nine billion monthly advertising contacts across over 400 FAST Channels.

The company has also entered into technology partnerships with FreeWheel and Index Exchange to strengthen its programmatic advertising capabilities and improve automated trading of advertising inventory.

“Our goal is to strengthen the market with an open, independent and technologically advanced advertising sales model,” said Frank Möbius, Managing Director of Goldvertise Media. “By continuously expanding our portfolio and partner network, we are creating an offering that meets the requirements of modern media planning while serving the interests of premium content providers.”

The latest agreement further deepens the relationship between Goldvertise and High View. In December 2025, High View acquired Goldvertise from Swiss advertising group Goldbach as part of Goldbach’s strategic withdrawal from the German market. At the time, High View said the acquisition would support its ambitions to expand integrated advertising sales across linear television, connected TV and online video while allowing Goldvertise to continue operating independently under Möbius’ leadership.

With Deluxe Music and its sister channels now joining Goldvertise’s directly marketed portfolio, the company further strengthens its position as an independent advertising sales house specialising in premium video inventory across linear television, connected TV and digital video.

Broadband infrastructure supplier Technetix has appointed Abhishek Sandhir as Chief Sales Officer for Europe as it looks to accelerate growth across the region.

Sandhir joins the company after senior commercial roles at Corning, Sterlite Technologies and Sand Technologies, where he led fibre broadband, cable and 5G businesses across Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Technetix said the appointment comes as European network operators face increasing regulatory requirements while continuing to invest in fibre and next-generation broadband infrastructure.

CEO Paul Broadhurst said Sandhir’s experience working with cable and telecommunications providers would help strengthen the company’s European sales strategy.

Technetix supplies broadband network equipment to operators in more than 70 countries, with products designed to support cable, fibre and wireless network deployments while reducing operating costs and extending network life.

Live production technology specialist Appear will use IBC2026 to expand its hybrid hardware and software platform, unveiling new capabilities designed to help broadcasters modernise live event production while maintaining broadcast-grade reliability.

The company is enhancing both its hardware-based X Platform and software-defined VX Platform as it looks to support customers running live production workflows across on-premise infrastructure and cloud environments.

Among the new hardware announcements is support for JPEG XS, Dolby AC-4 and Dolby Atmos on the compact X5 platform, targeting ultra-low-latency live contribution.

Across the show floor, we’re likely to see more hybrid production rather than all-cloud production. Broadcasters increasingly want to keep mission-critical processing in dedicated hardware while moving less latency-sensitive functions into software.

Appear is also introducing the ECx400 compression module for its X10 and X20 platforms. The new module combines encoding and decoding on a single card, supporting JPEG XS, AVC and HEVC workflows over both IP and SDI. General availability is scheduled for December, although Appear says two major US customers have already committed to the platform.

On the software side, the company is extending its VX Platform with new cloud capabilities including automatic discovery of live streams from X Platform hardware, cloud-agnostic deployment, multi-protocol support, cloud distribution, compressed stream processing and hitless redundancy.

Appear says the combined platform allows broadcasters to move workloads between dedicated hardware and software while reducing the amount of specialist equipment required for live production.

CEO Thomas Bostrøm Jørgensen said customers including FOX and NBCUniversal continue to rely on the company’s technology for major sporting events including the FIFA World Cup and Winter Olympics, helping shape its product roadmap.

CANAL+ has secured exclusive rights to UEFA’s men’s club competitions across more than 40 countries in sub-Saharan Africa for four seasons from 2027 to 2031.

The agreement covers the UEFA Champions League, Europa League and Conference League, strengthening CANAL+’s sports portfolio in one of the world’s fastest-growing pay-TV markets.

The rights arrangement varies by territory. In French-speaking Africa, CANAL+ Sport will once again become the exclusive French-language home of the Champions League while also gaining exclusive French-language rights to the Europa League and Conference League for the first time.

In English and Portuguese-speaking markets, Canal-owned SuperSport will continue to carry the competitions exclusively, maintaining its position as the leading sports broadcaster in those territories.

The acquisition adds UEFA club football to a sports portfolio that already includes the Premier League, LaLiga, Ligue 1 and major African football competitions.

CANAL+ said the agreement forms part of a wider partnership with UEFA’s commercial agency UC3 and follows recent rights agreements covering France, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria and Poland.

Liberty Global has completed its acquisition of Vodafone’s 50% stake in VodafoneZiggo, clearing the way for the creation of Ziggo Group, a new Benelux telecoms business serving around 13 million customers and generating approximately €6.6 billion in annual revenue.

Although Vodafone has sold its joint venture stake, it will retain a 10% shareholding in Ziggo Group, while Liberty Global will own the remaining 90%. Vodafone received around €1 billion in cash as part of the transaction.

Liberty Global plans to list Ziggo Group on the Amsterdam stock exchange in 2027 through a spin-off to its shareholders, following a similar move with Swiss operator Sunrise.

The new company will combine Liberty Global’s interests in VodafoneZiggo in the Netherlands with Telenet in Belgium and Luxembourg, although consumers will continue to see the existing retail brands.

Stephen van Rooyen, currently CEO of VodafoneZiggo, will lead Ziggo Group, while Sunrise CFO Jany Fruytier will become chief financial officer when the new company begins operating in September.

Alongside the restructuring, Liberty Global is reshaping the group’s balance sheet. Telenet and network company Wyre have separated their financing arrangements, allowing Telenet to repay more than €2 billion of debt. The company is also pursuing €1.2-1.4 billion of asset sales, including part of Wyre, VodafoneZiggo’s tower portfolio and property assets, with proceeds earmarked for further debt reduction.

Liberty Global said the enlarged group would have the scale to invest in next-generation networks while generating stronger free cash flow and supporting future shareholder returns.

The Incorporated Society of British Advertisers (ISBA) has entered exclusive discussions with Fifty5Blue, formerly Kantar Media, over an investment to accelerate the next phase of the UK’s advertiser-led cross-media measurement programme, Origin. 

The proposed agreement would see Fifty5Blue invest in Origin as it continues its transition into a standalone company, while ISBA retains majority ownership and advertisers continue to lead its strategic direction.

Origin was developed to provide a single, independent view of campaign performance across television, streaming, online video, social media and other advertising platforms. It became generally available to advertisers in 2025 and is backed by almost 70 organisations across the advertising, agency and media sectors.

The investment would support the next phase of Origin’s development, including broader media coverage, enhanced reporting and planning tools, improved interoperability and expanded measurement services.

Fifty5Blue rebranded from Kantar Media earlier this year following its separation from Kantar Group and acquisition by H.I.G. Capital. The company operates audience measurement services in more than 60 markets worldwide and provides many of the television ratings currencies used by broadcasters and advertisers.

ISBA Director General Simon Michaelides said Origin remained “a hugely important initiative for advertisers” and described the programme as critical to delivering a world-first in cross-media measurement.

Patrick Béhar, Chief Executive of Fifty5Blue, said the company would support Origin’s mission through further investment designed to accelerate innovation for advertisers.

The two organisations expect to reach a final agreement in September, with the transaction due to complete later this year.

STV has expanded the availability of its streaming service by launching STV Player on LG smart TVs across the UK.

The free streaming service is now available on LG televisions, projectors and monitors running webOS 25 and later, giving viewers direct access to STV’s live channels and on-demand catalogue without requiring additional streaming devices.

The move extends STV Player’s distribution across one of the UK’s largest smart TV platforms as broadcasters continue to prioritise connected TV viewing.

Richard Williams, Managing Director of Audience (Video & Technology) at STV, said making the service available on the platforms viewers use most was a priority.

“It’s hugely important for us to have STV Player easily accessible on the platforms and devices that matter most to viewers,” he said. “Every day, millions of households across the UK consume entertainment via an LG TV.”

STV Player is the streaming home of Channel 3 programming in Scotland and also offers a catalogue of UK and international drama, factual programming, sport and archive content to viewers across the UK. Recent exclusives have included Believe Me, Coroner and Red Rock, while the platform also hosts the complete revival of the classic soap Brookside.

For LG, the agreement adds another UK broadcaster’s streaming service to its webOS ecosystem, continuing the trend of smart TV manufacturers strengthening direct relationships with broadcasters and streaming providers.