The real-time interactive streaming revolution kicked into high gear at the recent IBC show in Amsterdam, fueled by intensifying activity around the emerging Media-over-QUIC (MOQ) standard and an outpouring of unrelated innovations by multiple suppliers.

With myriad paths now open to a market hungry for real-time connectivity, competing vendor messages mixed with much confusion over who is doing what lent an air of chaos typical of any major sea change in how things are done on the internet. But the momentum behind MOQ suggested that whatever upheaval lies immediately ahead, the International Engineering Task Force’s standards-based approach will become the new norm in video usage before too long.

This year’s football season is taking the venerable sport a quantum leap closer to what fans of all sports worldwide will soon be taking for granted with next-gen viewing experiences that fully exploit the interactive personalized dynamism of IP technology, especially when it’s employed with ultralow-latency streaming.

The transformative implications of what’s taking shape around efforts to drive viewer engagement with on-screen magic have been largely overshadowed by press reports covering new streaming deals as a way to reach cord-cutters and cord-nevers. The big news is that pervasive inclusion of live football as part of streamed services’ programming has led to virtually every NFL and top-tier college game becoming available through live-streamed as well as multichannel pay TV and over-the-air distribution.

The emphasis on the business side is understandable, given what’s at stake as the big four broadcast and streaming rights holders with billions invested in recent multi-year contracts compete in high-wire acts aimed at balancing monetization agendas across traditional TV and digital outlets. But they’re also going further than ever in the digital domain to deliver the feature personalization and gamification deemed essential to driving engagement with a restless generation of younger consumers.