AP Washington video team delivers breakthrough State of the Union production

By Mike Pesoli, Rick Gentilo, River Zhang, Meg Kinnard, Sagar Meghani, Felicia Biles and Derek Danilko

Covering the State of the Union presents a unique challenge: nearly every outlet carries the speech, making differentiation difficult. The AP Washington video team set out to build a livestream that could compete with major networks — and do so at no cost to audiences.

On the eve of the address, the team unexpectedly lost its live location inside the Capitol due to high media demand. They quickly secured a backup site but continued pushing to regain access. Their persistence paid off, though it required rebuilding the live setup under intense time pressure.

The stream opened with live visuals of arrivals and activity inside the Capitol, offering scenes unmatched by most competitors. That was followed by an hour of context-driven programming that avoided speculation and partisan chatter, focusing instead on factual reporting and clear preview coverage.

AP carried the full speech live, along with the Democratic response, and captured reactions from members of Congress. The result was a polished, authoritative broadcast that drew 1.6 million viewers — outperforming many U.S. networks and major news organizations.

Judges praised the team’s resilience, editorial clarity and production excellence in turning logistical adversity into a standout, competitive livestream.