Encompass shifts TV feeds to OCI/Zixi

Broadcast distribution is the plumbing behind linear TV and radio — the part that gets a finished feed from a network out to affiliates, cable headends, and regional partners. For decades, that plumbing was basically satellite. Now Encompass Digital Media, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, and Zixi are making the case that the old model can be swapped out for IP delivery running through cloud infrastructure instead. The news here is not a vague future plan. It is a concrete production push in April 2026, built around live channel distribution and backed by a real customer migration. ### What actually changed? Oracle published a detailed April 22, 2026 write-up describing how Encompass uses OCI plus Zixi to distribute live broadcast TV and radio feeds over IP as an alternative to satellite. Zixi then amplified the same case on April 30, 2026 as part of its “satellite replacement” push. So this is less a one-day product launch than a public line in the sand — the vendors want broadcasters to see cloud IP distribution as ready for mainstream use now. (blogs.oracle.com) ### Who are the players here? Encompass is the managed media operations company running the service layer. OCI is the cloud foundation underneath it. Zixi is the transport and orchestration layer that makes live video delivery over messy real-world IP networks reliable enough for broadcast use. Encompass has worked with Zixi since 2019, so this is an expansion of an existing stack, not a brand-new marriage assembled for marketing. ### Why was satellite the default for so long? (blogs.oracle.com) Because satellite solved one very specific broadcast problem really well — one feed, many destinations, high reliability, predictable operations. If you are distributing the same linear channel everywhere, satellite is simple. But the catch is that modern broadcasters rarely want one identical feed everywhere anymore. They want regional rights windows, local ad splits, alternate language tracks, and faster turn-up for new partners. That starts to make fixed satellite chains feel expensive and rigid. (zixi.com) ### Why does IP help? IP delivery turns distribution into software. That means channels can be routed, monitored, duplicated, and regionalized without building everything around a transponder lease and dedicated downlink chain. Zixi’s pitch is that it can handle delivery assurance, monitoring, orchestration, and interoperability across lots of endpoints, while OCI supplies the elastic compute and network base. Basically, the workflow becomes easier to scale and easier to customize market by market. (blogs.oracle.com) ### Is this just a demo, or is someone really using it? Someone is really using it. Encompass announced on May 1, 2025 that it was leading the BBC World Service transition from satellite to IP distribution with Zixi. The first major milestone came at the end of March 2025, when Europe completed the shift to IP distribution, and Encompass said the rest of the world would follow on a rolling basis across the Americas, Pacific, Africa, and Asia. That is the strongest evidence here, because it shows a major international broadcaster moving a live distribution network into this model. (blogs.oracle.com) ### Does this mean satellite is finished? No — not everywhere. Encompass has said hybrid setups still matter in regions where internet connectivity is not strong enough, and that is the practical constraint. Satellite still wins in some hard-to-reach places and in some ultra-stable one-to-many use cases. But the center of gravity is shifting. Once broadcasters can trust IP for primary distribution, satellite stops being the automatic answer and starts being the exception case. (encompass.tv) ### Why does this matter beyond one vendor stack? Because this is how infrastructure transitions really happen. First the industry talks about “cloud” in abstract terms. Then a few vendors show a working stack. Then a broadcaster with real reach moves a real service. Encompass, OCI, and Zixi are now at that third step. The bottom line is simple — satellite replacement for linear distribution is no longer a theory deck. It is a live operating model, and broadcasters now have a production example to point to. (blogs.oracle.com) (encompass.tv)