How a broadcaster-led programme is testing whether Network APIs can finally take live production beyond best-effort 5G — and why SliceFinity is part of it.
At IBC2026 in Amsterdam this month, a cross-industry group of broadcasters, mobile operators and technology vendors showcased a project with a simple but ambitious premise: 5G is ready for production, but not yet for scale. SliceFinity is one of the companies helping test what closes that gap — as a Participant in Network Control: Your Connection, Your Choice, part of the IBC Accelerator Media Innovation Programme.
The problem the project is built around
Broadcasters have already proven that private 5G and network slicing can deliver broadcast-grade workflows in real environments — contribution links, outside broadcasts, remote production. What’s held them back from doing it at scale isn’t the technology itself. It’s control.
As the project’s own brief puts it: for broadcasters, 5G quality of service and network APIs aren’t really about networks — they’re about editorial speed, flexibility, and reliability. Today’s landscape is fragmented: APIs vary operator to operator, with little cross-network consistency and workflows complex enough that there’s often no real incentive to integrate them into production systems at all.
Standardised network APIs — under the GSMA’s CAMARA framework — are meant to fix that: turning connectivity from something you hope holds up into a programmable, predictable, prioritised resource a broadcaster can build a workflow around. That’s the premise Network Control is testing directly.
Who’s involved
The project is led by an industry group of Champions: BBC, EBU, DAZN, France Télévisions, GSMA, RAI Italy, RTL Germany, TV2 Denmark, Vodafone and Telefónica — alongside a group of Participants contributing technology and testing: Haivision, LiveU, Neutral Wireless, SliceFinity and Vonage, with the University of Strathclyde as Academic Partner.
Proof-of-concept workflows are being developed and tested around major sporting events in Germany and Spain, evaluating how network-aware applications and open Network APIs can give broadcasters real visibility and control over connectivity — specifically, API-driven requests to prioritise broadcast traffic under congested network conditions. The project was showcased live on the Future Tech Stage in IBC’s Accelerator Zone (Hall 14) on Sunday, 13 September.
Where SliceFinity fits in
SliceFinity is contributing its platform to the programme’s connectivity-scheduling and prioritisation trials — working alongside broadcasters and fellow Participants to test, in a real environment, what it actually takes to turn a Network API like Quality on Demand (QoD) from something that works in a controlled demo into something a mobile operator could confidently sell and a broadcaster could confidently depend on.
That distinction matters to us. We’re not the ones who built or supplied the underlying QoD API being tested here — that’s the broadcasters and operators’ domain. What we’re focused on is the layer above it: the orchestration, visibility and reliability that turns a technically-working API into a commercially-trustworthy product. Being inside a live trial, with real broadcast partners and real event conditions, is exactly where that gets tested properly.
Why this matters beyond IBC
This project is a live example of a gap we see across the Network API market more broadly: the standards exist, the demand is real, and the technology largely works — but there’s still a trust gap between “works in a proof of concept” and “something an operator can sell as an enterprise-grade product.” Broadcast is just the sharpest current example, because broadcasters have said plainly, and publicly, that they need guaranteed connectivity, not best-effort.
We’ll be publishing a closer look at exactly what that gap looks like — and what it takes to close it — in the coming weeks. For now, if you’re a CSP or a broadcast technology team thinking about what’s next for Quality on Demand, we’d like to hear where you are with it.
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SliceFinity is the platform that turns Network APIs into revenue — helping CSPs expose, orchestrate and monetise the capabilities already built into their networks.
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