Back in April 2026, Faultline received a confidential tip-off that some of the UK’s major broadcasters were preparing to move critical playout operations away from Red Bee Media. At the time, Channel 4 was the only broadcaster to confirm Faultline’s queries, and now Channel 4’s roll-off from Red Bee is complete—lending credibility to the wider picture of a “playout crisis.” Channel 4 has announced that it has awarded its future playout contract to Encompass Digital Media, validating our source’s earlier report that the broadcaster was reviewing its relationship with Red Bee and considering alternative suppliers. The move will see Channel 4 deploy Encompass Digital’s channel origination, content supply chain and disaster recovery services through the vendor’s cloud-native Altitude platform, hosted from its London and Riga broadcast facilities. At the time, Channel 4 told Faultline: “Channel 4 regularly reviews…