
6 RULES TO LIVE BY Arguably the top priority for media businesses in 2025 is to reduce operational costs. But that's easier said than done when you're faced with increasing content delivery demands for an ever-evolving consumer landscape. Based on our real-world experience working with international media organisations, we've put together six principles to help you save money across the content supply chain.
1. You can't monetise what you can't see. There are vast libraries of unmanaged content running into the 10s of petabytes at a number of the big production labels much of which isn't even available as a browsable version. This media may as well not exist as you can't monetise what you can't see. This is a common situation that's increasing due to the significant M&A activity in the industry where multiple media catalogues have been combined from once separate production and distribution companies. But large volume content management is not an insurmountable problem. The first priority for any content owner or rights holder should be to bring everything under management so that you understand what content is in the library. Connect the MAM to the media, wherever it is, and have it register the material, generate a visible browse version, and hoover up as much metadata as you can find. If there really is no data, a simple microservice program can automatically generate metadata based on the information contained in your filenames. You might be surprised by how far this will take you.
2. Nobody move anything, until you know what it is. An end-to-end media supply chain is not synonymous with the cloud. Your media and the workflows involved in creating, managing and delivering content across various platforms and tools can be controlled and observable whether it's in the cloud, on the ground (on-prem') or any combination of the two. Bringing media under management doesn't mean moving it to the cloud or anywhere else. Once you've registered the assets and made them visible (see point 1 above) you can make an informed, value based, business decision as to where the most appropriate place is for them to be stored. Too often we hear media execs talking about their cloud strategy rather than the business strategy and the cloud' as an outcome whereas it should be viewed as a component - albeit an extremely powerful component of a business objective.
3. Clean as you go. Cloud services can deliver significant flexibility and efficiency. Equally, storing material in cloud storage has accessibility and security benefits. But cloud storage is definitely not the least expensive option. So, if you choose to migrate your content into the cloud, it's worth getting your housekeeping done before you make the move. First understand what you have, what condition it's in, what the likely value is, and what rights you hold. Other simple housekeeping tasks such as material deduplication or identifying minutes of colour black run out from a digitised tape, or camera pointing at ground rushes can also be carried out with the material in situ. The 90's broadcast engineers' joke of operators inadvertently archiving hundreds of hours of colour bars isn't quite so funny when you move from a $10/TB LTO to incrementally priced cloud storage.
For this reason, we tend to support a controlled migration of content and workflows to the cloud rather than the forklift content and sort it out when it gets there' approach.
4. You don't need to shut down existing systems to modernise your operation. Your legacy' systems can, and probably do, still deliver value. There's no need to change your entire technology ecosystem just because you want to introduce new tools, streamline your workflows or take advantage of cloud scale. In a constantly developing technology landscape, the best approach is to integrate, not deprecate. Your MAM orchestration platform should integrate with both legacy and new technologies so that existing systems can continue to deliver value while new tools - such as AI applications - can be readily incorporated into workflows to support ever changing business needs. At Blue Lucy we achieve this by using our BLAM microservice architecture to connect disparate systems and enable a controlled migration to modern workflows.
5. It doesn't matter where the content is. No, really. The actual location of your content should have no bearing on your ability to monetize it. Your MAM should provide easy and uniform access to all your assets, no matter where the ops' team or the media is physically located. On-prem and cloud storage should be viewed interchangeably rather than one being for operations, such as fulfilment, and the other for the safety copy because your MAM knows' where the material is and can be configured to use the most appropriate repository. And, if your operation is all cloud, then the need for a safety copy is moot as the cloud vendor can provide multi-copy resilient storage through simple configuration. 80% of Blue Lucy BLAM deployments are hybrid and use both cloud and ground storage.
6. Start small and work incrementally. Big bang Transformation projects are dead, and good riddance. Big projects cost big money, carry big risk and often end up in big disappointment (when they're not quietly killed). Even the successful ones take a long time to deliver value, and the true RoI rarely moves the needle on the CFO's dashboard, certainly after the long-departed big consultancy company fees are included.
Instead, big projects can be delivered in small steps using modern service-based technology and open APIs. That's why we recommend focussing projects on end-to-end solutions for a thin, horizontal operational slice. This approach proves the technology and the business
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
01/06/2026
January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026
Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...
02/05/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
01/05/2026
January 5 2026, 18:30 (PST) NBCUniversal's Peacock to Be First Streamer to ...
01/04/2026
January 4 2026, 18:00 (PST) DOLBY AND DOUYIN EMPOWER THE NEXT GENERATON OF CREATORS WITH DOLBY VISION
Douyin Users Can Now Create And Share Videos With Stun...
12/03/2026
Staines-upon-Thames, UK, 11th March, 2026 - Yospace, the trusted leader in Dyna...
12/03/2026
Utah Scientific Expands Technology Partner Program With Integrations From Audina...
12/03/2026
Techex, a global expert in live video solutions over IP and cloud, announces the appointment of Matt McKee as Senior Director, Sales, Americas, further strength...
12/03/2026
KOKUSAI DENKI Electric America has appointed Mondae Hott as Regional Sales Manag...
12/03/2026
At the 2026 NAB Show, Interra Systems will showcase its latest advancements in a...
12/03/2026
The 15th National Games of China concluded after a two-week celebration of athletic excellence and regional collaboration. Held from Nov. 9-21 across Guangdong,...
12/03/2026
Live-production academic program Butler Sports Live produced a total of 40 fall-...
12/03/2026
The University of Nebraska's HuskerVision has completed the second phase of ...
12/03/2026
Grass Valley and integration partner Tab M Solutions have completed Phase 1 of a...
12/03/2026
The broadcaster expands its campus-production model as the university handles tw...
12/03/2026
Disney has announced the addition of March Madness - the NCAA Division I Men...
12/03/2026
Apple TV's Friday Night Baseball MLB doubleheader series returns for its f...
12/03/2026
The senior from New Jersey is making his mark in South Bend, both on the mic and behind it...
12/03/2026
After a relatively quiet January, the month of February was jammed packed with l...
12/03/2026
Long-time production partner Echo Entertainment is producing the broadcast, while Cosm played a vital role in the collaboration...
12/03/2026
By Jessica Herndon
We love kicking off each year by introducing the world to po...
12/03/2026
Samrat Chakrabarti, George Basil, Kiran Deol, Katie McCuen and Vishal Vijayakumar attend the 2025 Sundance Film Festival premiere of Didn't Die at the Lib...
12/03/2026
In Latin America, women are shaping music and defining its future. To kick off t...
12/03/2026
En Am rica Latina, las mujeres est n moldeando la m sica y definiendo su futuro....
12/03/2026
Let's turn back the clock 20 years: The music landscape was a world away fro...
12/03/2026
Bad Bunny is no stranger to Spotify's Billions Club. In fact, he has a whopp...
12/03/2026
Spotify was at the London Book Fair this week, joining conversations across the publishing industry about how people can make reading part of their daily lives....
12/03/2026
Mastering tool improves mono compatibility
Tokyo Dawn Labs' Ohlhorst Digital range is a series of mastering-focused plug-ins developed by Jan Ohlhorst, ...
12/03/2026
Wave FX processor integrated into four products
Lewitt have teamed up with Elgato to create a new processor for the company's Wave Next product range, i...
12/03/2026
Free tool for annotating audio files
Mix Notes is a new, free iOS App that provides users with a simple way to annotate their audio files. It's been cre...
12/03/2026
Side-chain ducking tool gets an upgrade
Devious Machines' popular side-chaining and envelope-shaping tool has just been kitted out with an improved enve...
12/03/2026
Ceremony to take place on 16 April 2026
The MPG (Music Producers Guild) have revealed the full shortlist for this year's MPG Awards, which will be takin...
12/03/2026
Emulates three classic dbx 160 variants
The latest arrival to Overloud's Gem Series plug-in range faithfully recreates not one, but three versions of th...
12/03/2026
New granular soft synth announced
Said to be their most advanced software synthesizer to date, Baby Audio's latest release has been built on a new granu...
12/03/2026
Latest version now live!
Edit 11 March 2026 - Bitwig Studio 6 is now live, and available for all to download!
The latest version of Bitwig's DAW softwa...
12/03/2026
Latest free eBook now available!
Designed for recording engineers, audio-technology students and technically minded musicians, our latest free eBook deliver...
12/03/2026
AFL and NITV partner to launch new First Nations led program Inside the Huddle&...
12/03/2026
Rohde & Schwarz Cybersecurity expands SITLine network encryptor portfolio - more...
12/03/2026
Rohde & Schwarz to showcase future-proof EMC testing solutions at EMV 2026 Rohde & Schwarz will participate in EMV 2026, Europe's premier trade fair and c...
12/03/2026
Johannesburg, 11 March 2026 - The 19th Annual South African Film and Television ...
12/03/2026
MELBOURNE, Fla., March 11, 2026 - L3Harris Technologies (NYSE: LHX) and Shield AI have successfully demonstrated a first-of-its-kind integration combining L3Har...
12/03/2026
The incorporation of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning into modern, converged all-domain systems is enabling true Joint Electromagnetic Spectrum Oper...
12/03/2026
MELBOURNE, Fla., March 12, 2026 - L3Harris Technologies (NYSE: LHX) today announ...
12/03/2026
Modern media operations demand a platform that unites automation, orchestration, and human oversight without compromise. In this post, we explore the six key te...
12/03/2026
A deep dive into the platform
Architecture The Blue Lucy platform follows a distributed microservices architecture, meaning the overall operational capability...
12/03/2026
Orchestration platform enables broadcasters to deploy multiple AI models safely with full auditability, rights protection, and regulatory oversight.
LONDON, En...
12/03/2026
Cost pressures, switching intent and demand for savings and credit products are ...
12/03/2026
For the first time, Nielsen breaks out demographic information about FAST and AV...
12/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/03/2026
Appear's high-performance, ultra-low latency encoding platform augments LTN's fully managed global IP network and orchestration platform
LTN, a leader ...