CBC/Radio-Canada is among the winners of the 2026 IBC Innovation Awards in Amsterdam, celebrating collaborative projects tackling longstanding challenges across the global media, entertainment and tech industry.
The public broadcaster was recognized as part of the contingent behind open-source Media eXchange Layer (MXL), which was recognized in the Content Creation category.
The initiative, established by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) in collaboration with the North American Broadcasters Association (NABA), is hosted by the Linux Foundation and deployed by CBC/Radio-Canada.
Announced in April of last year, it aims to transform how video, audio, and metadata are exchanged in real-time media production environments. The project involved a wide range of industry partners. including the BBC, Bell Media, Dome Productions, France Télévisions, Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS), RTE (Ireland), SRG SSR (Switzerland), SVT (Sweden), SWR/ARD (Germany), and VRT (Belgium). Technology supporters include Appear, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Grass Valley, Intel, Lawo, NVIDIA, Riedel Communications, and Telos Alliance.
Reuters was also recognized in the Content Distribution category for transforming live news distribution with fixed-capacity infrastructure by way of a Global Shared Memory ecosystem powered by TVU Networks’ MediaMesh. It enables event-driven, API-orchestrated news distribution, including partner integrations with InSync, Kinetiq, Sony, Elecard and TAG Video Systems.
Brazilian network Globo was cited in the Content Everywhere category for its implementation of DTV+ in Brazil, which integrated broadcast and broadband to reconnect mass audiences with digital capabilities.
In the Social Impact category, G&L Systemhaus, Signapse, Norsk/id3as and Akamai were celebrated for their broadcast-grade, AI-powered sign language solution for live and on demand streaming.
“Our 2026 IBC Innovation Awards winners share a common thread in breaking down previously insurmountable geographical, language, and organisational barriers to open media workflows,” said Fergal Ringrose, Chair of the Innovation Awards Jury. “Each winner realizes a transformational environment for collaborative, cloud-native, software-first digital ecosystems.”
Additional awards previously-announced and presented at IBC included:
International Honour for Excellence (IHFE)
This year’s IHFE was awarded to Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS), recognizing the company’s decades of innovation in live Olympic sports production and its significant impact on the global broadcast industry. Through advances in ultra-high-definition production, immersive audio, remote production workflows, artificial intelligence, cloud-based technologies and next-generation storytelling, OBS has helped transform how audiences around the world experience the Olympic Games.
Best Technical Paper
The award for Best Technical Paper was given to Emma Maier, Jodie Pearton, Anna Stewart, Arina Mnatsakanyan and Jonathan Freeman, of i2 media research, for their paper titled Measuring and reducing interaction barriers in internet-delivered tv systems through age-informed human factors design. The paper explores how internet-delivered TV can be made easier for older viewers, identifying design barriers that can make everyday tasks harder and demonstrating how an optional age-informed overlay interface can support more confident, independent viewing.
IBC Accelerator Project of the Year 2025
Selected from the Challenges showcased at IBC last year, the 2025 Accelerator Project of the Year was presented to AI Agent Assistants for Live Production. The project demonstrated an AI Assistant Director acting as an orchestrator of a suite of production agents, enabling simpler voice control and natural language coordination of complex control room workflows. The project also developed an open, vendor-agnostic framework for AI agents working across live production, with an emphasis on augmenting human decision-making while maintaining editorial control. It was championed by broadcasters ITN, BBC and Channel 4, with participant vendors CUEZ, Amira Labs, Highfield AI, Monks, CuePilot, Shure, EVS, Moments Lab and Google Cloud.
