AI-assisted production, automated workflows, and synthetic media are reshaping broadcast operations at speed — and with that shift comes a new engineering challenge: how do we prove where content came from, how it was made, and whether it can be trusted? Content authenticity and provenance are quickly moving from theory into the core of real-world broadcast workflows.

This session frames content authenticity as a systems and standards problem, not a policy debate. Speakers will ground the discussion in familiar broadcast realities, tracing how provenance data can be lost as content moves from acquisition through live production, post, playout, and distribution. The session will clarify how authenticity differs from security and rights management, and why verifiable, tamper-evident metadata is becoming as important as timecode or color space in modern workflows.

From there, the session dives into active standards work, including efforts led by the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) and the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA). Attendees will explore how authenticity metadata can be created, carried, and preserved across professional formats — including MXF, file-based pipelines, and emerging live production scenarios.

The session closes with a forward-looking view of what’s next: unresolved technical challenges, likely standards evolution, and how broadcast engineers can start future-proofing systems today as content authenticity becomes a foundational layer of trusted broadcast infrastructure.