Marco Berkheij from Red Bee Media emphasises this partnership approach: "The technology lock-in concern is a significant industry challenge. Many broadcasters are attempting digital transformation while dragging along legacy systems, which is comparable to changing the wheels on a moving bus. The ideal approach would be to build something entirely new alongside existing systems and then perform a complete transition, but budget constraints often make this impossible."

This explains the growing demand for managed services and technology partnerships. Berkheij continues: "Content owners are recognising that outsourcing technology operations to specialists allows them to remain agile while focusing on their core strengths. Several large media companies are currently transitioning to this operational model, essentially pushing the reset button on their technology strategy."

Channel 4's approach to technology partnerships illustrates the potential benefits: "Our approach to technology involves partnering with companies at an early stage of development. This allows us to shape the product evolution and ensure it becomes genuinely fit for market purposes. The primary advantage is gaining early access to innovation, while challenges typically emerge when partners undergo significant changes or when our requirements evolve beyond their capabilities."

Daniela Boquete envisions more fundamental changes to platform architecture: "Decentralisation and blockchain-powered streaming will become increasingly important, particularly for rights management through smart contracts. While this technology is likely still a few years away, I'm researching and building these solutions because they address significant industry challenges."

She continues: "The key questions are whether this technology will help media companies, rights management professionals, production teams, talent, or creators increase fairness in payment, or help users reduce service costs through a more efficient supply chain. Large companies typically don't have the bandwidth to address these specific solutions, which is why focused startups combining industry knowledge with technical expertise and legal understanding will likely drive innovation in this space."

Facing unsustainable content inflation, major platforms are diversifying beyond their core offerings. Richard Huang notes: "Beyond advertising, we're seeing interesting diversification. Disney is now open to distribution deals on their archive content after initially taking everything exclusive, Netflix is experimenting with gaming, and Disney has invested in Epic Games. This experimentation is necessary as content inflation reaches unsustainable levels."