Broadcast
A cloud-based solution launching in New Zealand is set to improve live content streaming performance for local broadcasters.
2026 is set to be a massive year for sport. Key global sports events, including the FIFA World Cup, the Winter Olympics, the Commonwealth Games, and the men’s and women’s T20 World Cups, will attract thousands of Kiwi viewers who will be demanding nothing less than a premium viewing experience.
High-quality, buffer-free streaming of live sport is non-negotiable today. Even minor drops in performance can quickly frustrate audiences, leading to customer churn and even reputational damage for broadcasters.
To help address this, Kordia has partnered with global media technology provider Arqiva to deliver a suite of cloud-based solutions to New Zealand broadcasters. One of these solutions – Arqiva’s Streaming Optimisation – is designed to enhance the viewing experience for Kiwi audiences, while also bringing a host of benefits to local media companies.
The challenge with traditional Content Delivery Networks (CDNs)
Streaming has cemented itself as a core pillar of the modern content landscape. As its popularity has grown, so too have audience expectations. Viewers expect broadcast-grade video content to be streamed anywhere, anytime, including on mobile devices.
Many existing CDNs are not equipped to consistently deliver this level of performance, especially during peak live events. Public CDNs, for instance, typically share capacity across a wide range of use cases, including software updates and game downloads, causing congestion. For media companies, even brief buffering or quality degradation can have significant commercial consequences.
Relying solely on traditional CDN infrastructure can compromise the quality of content delivery, reducing reliability when the stakes are highest.
How does Arqiva Streaming Optimisation work?
Arqiva’s Streaming Optimisation addresses one of the biggest challenges in modern content delivery: scaling reliably during periods of peak demand. Alaina Hall, Director of Global Media at Arqiva, describes the solution as “an AI-powered peer-to-peer network that puts the end user first”.
The technology prioritises end-user experience by using AI to route content along the most efficient delivery paths, whether that’s through peer-to-peer connections between viewers or via traditional CDNs. When demand spikes and CDNs risk becoming congested, the system dynamically creates ‘user trees’ that allow viewers to securely and efficiently peer off one another, maintaining consistent quality and low latency.
The result is broadcast-grade video delivered reliably across streaming platforms, connected TVs, and mobile devices, even during the biggest live events. By combining AI, edge computing, and peer-to-peer delivery, Arqiva’s Streaming Optimisation boosts capacity where and when it is needed, without compromising viewer experience.
“Ultimately it puts the end user as a first-class citizen, in the route it takes to deliver the content in partnership with the CDN. It essentially creates a tree of users where they can peer off each other to ultimately get that best experience during peak times where maybe the CDN is maxed out,” explains Hall.
A win-win solution
The benefits of Arqiva’s Streaming Optimisation for the end user are clear: significantly reduced buffering, better streaming quality, and a superior experience overall.
The platform also has benefits for broadcasters. Beyond better performance, enhanced viewer retention and engagement, and lower content delivery costs, it also provides comprehensive real-time monitoring, giving broadcasters clear visibility into how the network behaves during live events.
This includes insights into regional viewing patterns, user experience metrics, and network performance, enabling smarter operational decisions before, during, and after major broadcasts.
“During any live event, a broadcaster can tap in to see what is exactly happening in the peer-to-peer network when it's being leveraged. How the trees of peers connecting to each other to watch this content are being created, in what regions, what experience they're having, buffering quality, and it's all real time data,” says Hall.
Shaping the future of live event streaming inNew Zealand
The action-packed year of sport ahead is a timely reminder of Kiwis’ appetite for sports content, how content viewing habits have evolved, and the need for broadcasters to meet increasing levels of audience demand.
Arqiva’s Streaming Optimisation puts intelligent AI and peer-to-peer edge computing to work for New Zealand media services, delivering better viewing experiences at lower distribution costs than traditional CDNs. By boosting capacity, reducing congestion, scaling efficiently, and improving sustainability, the solution ensures broadcasters can focus on delivering quality for their customers, without being constrained by their CDN.
“We see our technology as something unique in the market that we're not seeing from other streaming providers today. And we believe that in New Zealand, it can bring a whole new benefit to live events here,” says Hall.
