As part of the recent StreamTV Europe 2026, our Chief Revenue Officer, Ian Franklyn, joined the panel discussion “Everyone Wants Sports. Who’s Winning the Fan, and How?” during the Streaming Made Easy Workshop. The session brought together leading voices from across the sports streaming ecosystem to discuss how fan expectations are evolving, what challenges the industry still faces, and what the future of sports delivery will look like over the next few years.

Alongside representatives from YouTube, DAZN, and Orange Spain, Ian shared MainStreaming’s perspective on one of the biggest transformations currently shaping the media landscape: the shift from simply owning sports rights to delivering the highest possible Quality of Experience (QoE).

The Fan Experience Is Becoming the Real Differentiator

Throughout the discussion, a common theme emerged very clearly: today’s sports fans expect far more than just access to content. Audiences want immediacy, personalization, community interaction, and flawless streaming experiences across every device and network. As viewing habits continue to evolve, especially among younger audiences, the quality and reliability of distribution infrastructure have become strategic differentiators for broadcasters, OTT platforms, and ISPs.

From MainStreaming’s perspective, this evolution is redefining the role of technology providers within the media ecosystem. During the panel, Ian emphasized how MainStreaming enables broadcasters, OTT platforms, and network operators to focus on creating compelling fan experiences while MainStreaming manages the complexity of content delivery behind the scenes. Rather than operating as a standalone player, MainStreaming positions itself as a technology enabler within a broader “better together” ecosystem that connects all stakeholders across the value chain.

Delivering Live Sports at Scale

A key part of Ian’s contribution focused on the importance of scalable, high-performance infrastructure for live sports streaming, where audience peaks can rapidly reach massive scale in just a few moments. He highlighted how ensuring consistently high QoE is no longer simply a technical objective, but a business-critical requirement directly tied to user engagement, retention, and monetization. Poor streaming experiences during live sports events can quickly translate into audience churn and lost revenue opportunities.

To demonstrate how these challenges can be addressed in practice, Ian referenced the collaboration between MainStreaming and DAZN, showcasing how purpose-built edge delivery architectures can support highly demanding live events while maintaining scalability, reliability, and low latency for viewers.

Tackling Fragmentation and Piracy

The conversation also explored some of the major challenges the industry still needs to solve. Fragmentation across platforms and services was identified as one of the biggest issues impacting discoverability and user experience, while piracy continues to represent a significant threat to the value of premium sports content.

On this topic, Ian discussed MainStreaming’s approach to content protection, explaining how the industry increasingly needs smarter anti-piracy strategies that protect legitimate services without negatively impacting the viewing experience for paying audiences. Rather than focusing exclusively on hard blocking, the discussion touched on approaches that can degrade the experience for illegitimate users while preserving content value and reducing the impact of unauthorized distribution.

Another major challenge highlighted during the panel was maintaining QoE consistency across increasingly fragmented devices, access networks, and viewing environments. Ian explained how analytics and real-time delivery intelligence are becoming essential tools for broadcasters, OTTs, and ISPs looking to preserve high Quality of Service (QoS) standards and proactively manage QoE and audience expectations during peak-demand events.

The Future of Sports Streaming

Looking toward the future, the panelists agreed that the next three to five years will bring even greater competition for audience attention, particularly among Gen Z viewers. In this environment, simply offering content will no longer be enough. Platforms will need to deliver highly curated, personalized, and seamless experiences capable of adapting to different consumption behaviors and formats.

From a technology standpoint, Ian underlined that predictive traffic management, advanced analytics, and infrastructure scalability will become increasingly critical as live streaming audiences continue to grow. At the same time, viewers are becoming progressively less tolerant of latency, buffering, and poor streaming quality, making resilient delivery architectures a core competitive advantage for media companies.

As live sports continue to drive some of the largest and most demanding online audiences globally, ensuring exceptional Quality of Experience at scale will remain fundamental to winning and keeping the fan. The participation in this panel reinforced our role as a strategic technology partner for broadcasters, OTT platforms, and ISPs navigating the next phase of sports streaming evolution.