Broadcasters, Vendors and Moving Past C-Band at NAB New York

The clock on C-band is now set. In July 2026, the FCC ordered 160 MHz of Upper C-band spectrum cleared for auction by July 2027, turning the satellite sunset from theory into a schedule. That backdrop shaped The HIVE Group's breakfast event, Broadcasters' Road to C-Band Replacement, held October 21 during NAB Show New York 2026. I went to represent NetActuate, meet with partners and prospects, and follow the C-band transition. The room was full of innovators looking to solve problems, collaborate and chart a path through the transition.

What Broadcasters Are Asking For

The broadcaster panel brought together Paramount, Nexstar Media Group, Sinclair, and USSI Global. Their situations differ, but their priorities overlap.

Paramount, carrying high-stakes live sports like the NFL, is on the road to a proof of concept where reliability comes first. Nexstar, now with live sports on The CW, raised practical questions about regional flexibility, communication between networks, and where costs will ultimately land.

Sinclair, an early mover, is now over 90% through its shift to cloud native distribution. It described the change as a true move rather than a repack, with significant cost improvements. Its ask of vendors: make the transition feel as close to C-band as possible, with automatic path switching. USSI Global summed up the challenge as cost, complexity, and control with a lab set up to address challenges like rain fade and last mile delivery.

The Vendor View: Hybrid Desogns, Multi-path, and Cost Control

On the technology panel, Quortex, LTN, Appear, Zixi, Eluv.io, and AWS agreed on one point: success is won or lost in the last mile. Speakers described multiple last-mile paths across separate fault domains, hybrid designs that pair IP with LEO satellite as backup, and failover that happens automatically.

Zixi noted that stations lose roughly 45 minutes of receive time each year, a gap a hybrid approach can close. Eluv.io stressed guaranteed latency and converged solutions, while AWS highlighted multipath backbones and the speed of launching new channels over IP. Quortex framed the goal as network-aware delivery with full visibility, giving broadcasters choice and flexibility while keeping costs under control.

Choice without Complexity

Proving choice is where NetActuate and Quortex are focused. Together, we are consolidating transport and control so broadcasters gain options while minimizing failure.

We recently announced a global agreement under which the Quortex Edge CDN control plane runs inside NetActuate's owned network across 50+ locations, with PowerVu and vDCM integrated into the NetActuate Media Substrate. To learn more about where distribution is heading, read the announcement and The HIVE Group's Navigating the Distribution Transition report from IBC 2026 (page 15). 

On the Floor at NAB NY

At NAB Show New York, I spent some time in the Quortex booth, which was busy with visitors and meetings. The show leaned toward media production, yet the question of how that media reaches consumers was ever present.

As the industry moves further into cloud computing and software defined networks, it’s interesting to see how companies are looking at the media stream end to end and working to stay ahead of the curve.

See You in Las Vegas

NetActuate will be at NAB Show 2027 in Las Vegas in some form. If C-band replacement is on your roadmap, let's start the conversation before then.

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