NAB Show Opens
- NAB Show kicked off in Las Vegas with roughly 60,000 expected visitors and 1,100 exhibitors. ( ) - Organizers listed AI, sports media and business broadcasting as the exhibition's headline focus areas for April 18–22. ( ) - The Streaming Summit returns April 20–21, centering on bundling, ads and sports rights conversations. (x.com)
The National Association of Broadcasters opened its 2026 NAB Show in Las Vegas this weekend, starting a five-day gathering focused on media, streaming and production technology. (nabshow.com) The event runs April 18–22 at the Las Vegas Convention Center, with the show floor open April 19–22. Organizers said more than 1,100 exhibitors are participating across the campus. (nabshow.com) NAB said this year’s program is centered on artificial intelligence, sports, streaming, cloud workflows and the creator economy. A separate NAB press release on April 18 said the industry is moving from experimentation to execution in those areas. (nabshow.com, nab.org) That mix reflects where broadcasters and streaming companies are spending money in 2026: software that automates editing and captioning, tools that move video through cloud systems, and products built around live sports and digital creators. NAB describes the show as a marketplace for how content is created, distributed and monetized. (nabshow.com, nab.org) Sports has a larger footprint this year. Trade coverage said the Sports Summit was expanded into a four-day program called “The Future of Sports Rights and Fan Engagement,” and opened to all attendees for the first time. (videomaker.com) Streaming gets its own two-day conference inside the show on April 20–21. NAB’s Streaming Summit site said the program includes five tracks and 85 speakers covering sports streaming, content bundling, advertising, churn, personalization and video delivery at scale. (nabstreamingsummit.com) The session agenda shows how business-focused those talks have become. Topics include the “new streaming TV bundle,” advertising measurement, live sports user experience and the fragmented sports streaming market. (nabshow.com, nab26.mapyourshow.com) NAB Show has long been a product-launch stage for camera makers, software vendors and broadcast suppliers, and 2026 is following that pattern. In the days before opening, companies including Sony, Wowza and AI-Media announced new products or demonstrations timed to the show. (marketwatch.com, streamingmedia.com, markets.businessinsider.com) For Las Vegas, the show is now in its busiest stretch: conference sessions began Saturday, exhibits opened Sunday, and the biggest conversations on bundling, ads and sports rights are scheduled for Monday and Tuesday. (nabshow.com, nabstreamingsummit.com)
