Skyview Networks is positioning Cirocast as the answer to one of radio’s most pressing infrastructure questions, and the timing couldn’t be more relevant. The cloud-native audio distribution platform gives broadcasters a way to modernize without abandoning the legacy systems that still keep hundreds of stations on the air. With regulatory changes reshaping the satellite landscape, Skyview Networks believes it has built something the industry didn’t know it needed until now — but clearly does.
That belief comes straight from the top. Sarah Foss, Chief Transformation Officer at Skyview Networks, has watched the industry’s reaction to recent announcements about the platform and the team behind it.
“I think it’s really exciting, what we’re doing across the board,” Foss said. Feedback from clients, she added, has been overwhelming since news of promotions and additions at the company started circulating.
For Foss, the excitement isn’t just about a new product. It’s about a company willing to challenge its own legacy.
“When you consider we’re taking all of this legacy and heritage and saying, ‘Wait, you can do it better now,'” she said, “you can do it better.” That mindset, she explained, has always driven her approach to the industry — pushing technology forward and creating business opportunity by thinking smarter rather than simply working harder.
Aaron Mellis, Senior Vice President of Technology at Skyview Networks and the lead developer of Cirocast, offers a more clinical breakdown of what the platform actually does.
“It’s a cloud-native audio distribution system,” Mellis said, built primarily to serve national and regional rights holders. That group includes sports teams, national networks, and small syndicated shows alike.
Three forces converged to create the need, according to Mellis: C-band regulatory changes recently approved for a July 2027 auction, a radio station environment reshaped by consolidation and shifting downlink access, and uneven infrastructure reliability across the country.
Filling a Gap the Industry Didn’t Know Existed
Those three pressures pushed Skyview Networks toward a product nobody else had built.
“We didn’t see anything available to service that need, so we developed it ourselves,” Mellis said. Because affiliate needs vary so widely, flexibility became a design priority from the start. Some stations are ready to lean fully into virtual environments, while others still depend on rack-based equipment to deliver their programming.
Foss pointed to a workforce reality that makes that flexibility essential. Fewer broadcast engineers and technical experts staff stations today than in years past, even as listener demand hasn’t budged.
“Cirocast is giving the broadcaster the optionality Aaron mentioned,” Foss said, particularly for facilities that have consolidated or lost dedicated technical staff. Consequently, stations can redirect scarce technical talent toward keeping their product reaching listeners effectively.
Monetization gaps in existing solutions also shaped the platform’s development. Prior cloud delivery mechanisms and hardware-based distribution options simply lacked the financial tools clients needed, according to Mellis. That gap became another driver behind Cirocast’s build-out. Meanwhile, Skyview Networks leaned on three decades of relationships with rights holders and broadcasters to identify exactly where those gaps existed.
“That’s been part of Skyview Networks’ heritage,” the lead Cirocast developer shared, with Skyview Networks spending three decades working with clients to find and fix distribution shortfalls.
That heritage, according to Foss, is precisely what makes broadcasters trust the pitch.
“We’re using Cirocast ourselves,” the Skyview Networks Chief Transformation Officer shared, and that internal adoption carries weight with clients. Trust built over 30 years doesn’t disappear overnight, she noted, and it gives the company credibility when it tells broadcasters which direction to move.
A Fixed Deadline Changes Everything
Development wasn’t a quick process. Mellis described roughly two to three years spent evaluating existing technology before realizing the features clients actually needed simply didn’t exist yet. Along the way, a subset of satellite affiliates lost local downlink capability, forcing Skyview Networks to adapt in real time. Partner feedback, he said, proved essential to refining the platform as challenges surfaced.
Until Wednesday, though, uncertainty lingered over the whole rollout.
Foss described the transition as “a moving target” ahead of today’s regulatory vote, since broadcasters didn’t know how the FCC and government would support the shift. Some clients wanted clarity on integration timelines; others simply wanted to know when they needed to act. Now that a firm date exists, Foss expects the industry to move with far more confidence.
That doesn’t mean broadcasters should wait until the deadline nears. Skyview Networks has already migrated some networks onto Cirocast, and more transitions are planned for later this year and into early 2027.
“The sooner you get ahead of that transition, the better,” Mellis said, given how disruptive sudden change can be across hundreds of stations. A transition period follows the 2027 auction, so the shift won’t happen overnight — but preparation now still matters enormously.
Foss urged every broadcaster to start mapping out its own rollout strategy immediately. Business resilience, staffing plans, and installation timing all factor into that planning, she explained. Stations can’t pause service simply to install new equipment, so coordination matters as much as the technology itself.
Fortunately, Cirocast’s phased approach means networks don’t need to cut everything over at once, according to Mellis. That flexibility already shows up in how early adopters have used the platform.
This spring, Skyview Networks onboarded its first group of networks, and those installations have run smoothly for months. Additional partners are slated for fall and early 2027 migrations, with implementation covering everything from raising station awareness to placing equipment and finally migrating traffic. Given how differently support needs vary from market to market, Mellis said the company remains committed to accommodating each affiliate’s pace.
As the July 2027 deadline approaches, Skyview Networks appears confident it’s built more than just a stopgap solution. Cirocast represents a bet that cloud-native distribution, paired with decades of broadcaster relationships, can carry the industry through a genuinely disruptive regulatory shift. For now, both Foss and Mellis seem focused on the same goal — helping as many stations as possible get ahead of the curve before the cliff arrives.
Garrett Searight is Barrett Media’s News Editor, which includes writing daily news stories, features, and opinion columns. He joined Barrett Media in 2022 after a decade leading several radio brands in several formats, as well as a 5-year stint working in local television. In addition to his work with Barrett Media, he is a radio and TV play-by-play broadcaster. Reach out to him at Garrett@BarrettMedia.com.