Content Choice and Sustainability

In recent years, the choice of video services has multiplied, as large media organisations add a plus symbol to their established brands and roll out new platforms. In addition, many incumbents in the VOD space are now supplementing their main subscription models with AVOD options. In some cases, these ad-funded tiers will be differentiated with new content, but at the very least they will require new versions of the original media files with markers for ad insertion. Linear TV has not been left behind, evolving its offering with more content choice, and diversifying with themed FAST channels.

The accessibility of media content has also had an impact. The option to consume content anywhere and at any time, makes it easier for viewers to watch more than ever. If media and entertainment companies want to compete, they need to ensure their content travels with the consumer. This in-turn drives up demand as viewing becomes a constant companion to daily life. Whether audiences are in the kitchen watching a cookery show, escaping with a movie on a long train journey, or second screening in the lounge while the football is on – entertainment can now follow them wherever they go.

Companies are upping their game with good reason. The Deloitte 2022 Digital media trends report pointed out that “as Gen Z and Millennial entertainment choices gain favour across the globe, social and gaming experiences compete head-to-head with video for consumers’ attention.” But however and wherever consumers are watching content, media assets need to be housed securely. This endless choice for audiences has an impact, not only on financial resources but also on environmental ones.

Getting your house in order

As industry requirements have evolved over time, media storage has changed too. Content owners need to be able to search and locate assets quickly, often using remote or hybrid processing workflows. The global nature of the industry means that its content supply chains are complex, with lots of different teams needing access. Not too long-ago engineers were managing LTOs. So, the transition to file-based workflows and the rapid increase in media asset volume means that, in many cases, storage has become siloed and unstructured. Any duplication of assets, or duplication of effort to find assets, will result in wasted resources.

Content storage should therefore help media companies to improve efficiencies. But as file formats have changed to provide higher quality video, file sizes have also increased. This is only set to become more of a concern as we move towards media created for the metaverse and more immersive content experiences. Consumer expectations for the highest quality on all devices will naturally impact storage requirements. With large volumes of data moving in and out of storage, it is vital to optimise workflows. This will become even more important as media file sizes increase to 4k and 8k.

Some of the biggest errors made by media companies are the result of a lack of integration and automation. Disconnected storage silos might use anything from scalable on-prem NAS or USB drives, through to content stored in the public cloud that incurs huge egress fees. Ineffective storage practices drive up costs, making sustainable choices unachievable. But by ensuring content is consolidated, structured, and tagged with the right metadata, you can weed out a lot of the inefficiencies.

Managing resources effectively

It can be tempting to only focus on the headline-grabbing initiatives around sustainability. But what often gets overlooked are the daily practices that ensure you are using the space you have to its best advantage. Incurring egress costs to move data around inefficiently is a pointless waste of resources – it means you are hurting both your pocket and the planet. Working with data in a more strategic way, means that media organisations can meet the requirements of on-demand workflows, while utilising storage space optimally.

By consolidating media and protecting the metadata along with it, content owners can better understand the ways their content can work for them. This not only ensures the industry can respond to consumer demand, but it also means it can do so as efficiently as possible. By tiering storage according to individual requirements, assets are kept in the most sensible place for their use-case. That way, companies can differentiate between content which needs to be frequently accessed, and assets that are not likely to be used again.

Content should be easy to find to avoid unnecessary information requests. To protect the accessibility of files over the long-term, metadata should be stored in open formats. That way content owners are not forced into restrictive or proprietary agreements, that will make it difficult to transition files to more efficient storage further down the line. Using APIs also means that content can be found even if media asset management is not available. It is possible to automate the extraction and indexing of embedded metadata, which will future proof content and make it much easier to locate.

An industry working collectively

Whether working locally or working in the cloud, data centres have a carbon, water, and land footprint. The servers contained within them all consume a huge amount of energy, whether that is from spinning disks or tape robot machines. We cannot escape the reality that storage and access to storage requires energy. But much can be done to optimise these workflows and to minimise the environmental overheads.

There are strategies that represent a foundation for a more sustainable approach to storage. Large arrays of high-density disks are significantly more efficient, than using many servers holding lower density drives. Working with well-positioned data centres that use green energy supplies will become increasingly important. Performing data migration-in-place, will help to roll out far more efficient new hardware. And ensuring that data and metadata is properly organised so that it can be kept on the appropriate tier of storage is another key consideration.

There can be a tendency to keep some data in the cloud even when it is surplus to requirements, especially if storage costs are low. But we need to change this mindset. With efficient asset management processes in place, we can ensure files are not duplicated and then stored unnecessarily. It is these smaller considerations which can have a significant collective effect, when multiplied across thousands of hours of media files. For the industry to move into a sustainable future, we need to have an open dialogue about the ramifications of content volume. It is important we all work together and change the attitude to our collective ‘content footprint’.

By sharing information and collaborating across the vendor and customer ecosystem, we can start to address the environmental considerations for the media storage sector. Decisions need to be made, both in terms of our individual and our collective responsibilities. I am currently exploring the initiatives our company can commit to and taking the first steps on a sustainability journey. For instance, at our inhouse data centre in Cardiff we have successfully reduced our energy usage by 80%, using a combination of newer hardware, VM solutions and better infrastructure management. We plan to continue this energy saving drive into 2023 to achieve even greater efficiencies.

Sustainability should never be used as a commercial differentiator or a marketing gimmick. It is something that we plan to work on over the long-term, and hopefully as an industry-wide collaboration. In recent years, the volume of content that viewers are watching has increased exponentially, and the methods for its consumption continue to evolve. Let’s make sure we are evolving alongside it, to help build a sustainable future for our industry.