This is the second of a series of articles that discuss select findings from Devoncroft’s 2026 Big Broadcast Survey (BBS), the largest annual global study of media technology industry trends, technology purchasing plans, and benchmarking of technology vendor brands.

A consequence of the enormous infrastructure buildouts for AI technologies is the disruption to the pricing and availability of memory components for all other use cases.

Discussions around the memory component supply chain were already commonplace in the media technology supplier community in early 2026. System integrators were also acutely aware of the matter, though – anecdotally – the pending impact was still working its way through the value chain to the consciousness of end-customers.

As part of the discussion at the Devoncroft Executive Summit | Las Vegas in April 2026, we highlighted Sony’s announcement to temporarily suspend accepting orders for certain memory cards (the suspension was lifted for several categories in mid-May) and a timely Linkedin post by Mike Cavanagh, CEO of Keycode Media, AV integrator and reseller (see below).

To better understand the scope, magnitude, and duration of the memory component disruption to the global media technology sector, we asked a series of questions to all technology suppliers responding to the 2026 Big Broadcast Survey.

Memory Component Disruption Scope

All global technology vendors were first asked how the memory component disruption was impacting their business commercially.

35% of vendors surveyed indicated ‘no major impact,’ equating to almost two-thirds of the vendor community managing a major commercial impact. The largest categories of impact were an ‘increased cost component’, cited by 44% of total vendor respondents and ‘extended lead times for key components’ registered by 37% of total respondents. This is strong evidence of nearly 1 in 2 vendors managing component cost increases and more than a third managing extended lead times for components – lots of overlap in the two categories.

We have the recent comparison to the broad supply chain disruption in the wake of the global lockdowns. During the 2022 Big Broadcast Survey, an analogous question was asked to vendor respondents. In that instance, only 20% of vendors responded there was ‘No major impact.’ This is confirmation – aligning with intuition – that the current disruption is narrower in scope versus the early 2020s.

Memory Component Disruption Magnitude

For those respondents experiencing an impact from the supply disruption, we next wanted to understand the magnitude of the impact. The chart below visualizes the cost increase for the respondent’s products from memory component (in 2026) cost increases. Maintaining the comparison of 2022, a second series is included to show the historical responses from the prior supply chain disruption. Note, the question asks about product cost increases as opposed to the memory component increases. A product may use lots of memory inputs or have a comparatively higher or lower aggregate cost versus the memory input.

While the breadth of vendors and products impacted is lower than in 2022, the magnitude of the cost impact is notably higher. The margin realities within the media technology supplier community can’t absorb such a rise in input prices. Vendors simply have to pass on the burden in the form of pricing increases.

This is borne out by almost 80% of vendor respondents indicating prices have been raised to mitigate the impact of the memory component disruption.

Examples abound. One such is an early May announcement (twitter image below) by Blackmagic Design announcing increases, attributable to flash storage parts and DRAM memory increases), for 23 models. The weighted average of increases was 7.5%.

As an aside, if price increases can be passed along without material impacts on sales volumes (still unclear), then it would speak to larger matters of how solutions are priced.

Memory Component Disruption Duration

Having gathered feedback on scope and magnitude, the next natural topic to interrogate are expectations on the duration of the disruption. The responses from global media technology suppliers (experiencing a present impact) are visualized below.

More than 50% of media technology suppliers have an expectation that the disruption will last for more than 18 months. The comparable figure in 2022 was 28%.

To sum up, of all global media technology suppliers surveyed nearly two-thirds are managing a significant impact from the current memory component disruption, material price increases are now moving through the value chain, and half of those impacted vendors expect the disruption to last for more than 18 months. Versus the comparison of global lockdowns, the current disruption is requiring a higher magnitude of pricing increases and is expected to last longer.

There are many factors impacting expectation for remediating the current disruption. The cure for high prices is high prices. It stokes commercial motivations to bring online new supply, diversify sources, and redesign around need. And yet even large, well-resourced businesses are guiding stakeholders to expect a multi-year journey.

As part of Arista’s earnings announcement on August 4, 2026, CEO Jayshree Ullal tempered expectations around Arista’s progress in addressing the supply chain challenges (during the first half of 2026) with the following response to an analyst question:

“…I don’t want you to believe that suddenly we waved a magic wand and all our problems have gone away. The industry is going to have a two-year problem. I don’t think we get out of it as an industry till 2028”

Almost certainly the consequences will extend even further, as what this disruption is also motivating is a re-thinking of procurement and planning. As observed by Mike Cavanagh, “This isn’t just a temporary inconvenience – it’s a structural shift in how infrastructure needs to be planned and procured.”

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