The National Association of Broadcasters announced that Michael Rosellini will receive the 2026 Digital Leadership Award. Rosellini will be recognized during the We Are Broadcasters Awards Ceremony on the Main Stage of the 2026 NAB Show on Tuesday, April 21, in Las Vegas. Established in 2015, this award honors a broadcast executive who has played a pivotal role in advancing digital innovation and transforming traditional broadcast operations into successful multi platform media businesses.
Michael Rosellini, senior vice president digital services for Hearst Television, is being celebrated for his transformative impact on the digital evolution of local television. Since joining Hearst in 2008 to build its first in house software engineering team, Rosellini has helped shape the company digital strategy from the ground up. In his current role, he leads teams responsible for product development, engineering, data, and operations across station branded news websites, mobile apps, and the Very Local direct to consumer streaming platform.
Rosellini has overseen multiple end to end product redesigns, CMS migrations, and the continuous modernization of the company digital video, data, and advertising technology stacks. Notably, he and his team designed, built, and launched a full suite of OTT and CTV applications in house to power the Very Local brand. He also represents the digital interests of Hearst Television within key industry organizations, including NAB and Pearl TV, to support collaborative innovation efforts such as NextGen TV.
Currently, Rosellini plays a key technology role on the Hearst team working to help the advertising industry understand the fundamentally brand safe attributes of local news inventory through better AI driven contextual signals. An alumnus of the Hearst Management Institute, he is also recognized as an active mentor for his colleagues. More information about the 2026 NAB Show can be found at the official event website