Over the relatively short history of television broadcasting, archives have developed both technologically and in importance. There has been a progression from reels of film or telerecordings to videotapes—all on shelves— to the digitized deep storage of LTO (Linear Tape-Open) and disk drives, with solid-state flash memory and servers later bringing even more choice.
The cloud is now seen as a viable alternative to these methods in a media market that finally recognizes the financial value and potential of its assets, both historic and recent. Some broadcasters have made a wholesale move into the cloud for archiving, but others prefer a hybrid approach. This is highlighted in the 2025 annual report from the Active Archive Alliance (AAA), which promotes “active archives” that provide quick access to secondary storage systems, with the data always available online for fast recovery and review.
Stop Start
“I had seen many companies gravitating towards the cloud when it first came out, and then there was a bit of pulling back and potentially even repatriating data out of the cloud,” said Eric Polet, co-chair of the AAA and director of product marketing at software platform developer Arcitecta. “What I’m seeing now is a lot of hybrid cloud for distribution and sharing content, oftentimes bringing long-term preservation back on-prem.”
Polet’s co-chair, Rich Gadomski, director of channel sales and new business development for data- storage solutions with Fujifilm North America Corp., added that the AAA is “technology-agnostic,” with all main archiving media represented: optical, Savartus; solid state drives (SSD)/hard disk drives (HDD), Western Digital; tape, IBM, Fujifilm and Spectra Logic; and the cloud, Wasabi.
“Regardless of where the data is being stored, it can be accessed on-prem or in the cloud,” Gadomski said. “The volume of data, and its importance and value, has increased tremendously, so nobody wants to delete anything.”
From the cloud perspective, Amazon Web Services (AWS) is seeing many of the world’s leading broadcast and media and entertainment organizations commit their archives to the platform. But Stephanie Lone, global leader of solutions architecture for media, entertainment, games and sports at AWS, acknowledged that, in some cases, there is a hybrid element to the setup.
“The demos we give at the NAB Show and IBC often have the workspaces on physical hardware,” she said. “This means people have the tactile response they love, but don’t know if it is happening on the cloud or a hard drive under a desk. We’ve worked well in these hybrid environments with broadcasters and continue to do so.”
In addition to this, Lone added, full cloud transfer is also being undertaken by leading broadcasters. “Warner Bros. Discovery has an entire secure media supply chain on AWS, migrating petabytes of content to serve its customer base, which is approximately 95 million [HBO] Max subscribers alone,” she said. “Without the cloud, media companies can’t deliver or monetize their content across the digital landscape they’re in today.”
Have a Clear Roadmap
Avid produces cloud-compatible tools, including the MediaCentral workflow-management system and NEXIS storage platform, which can also connect with LTO archives. “Many broadcasters are still exploring the best use of cloud for their workflows,” observed Craig Wilson, product evangelist for artist relations at the company, with archiving a growing area.
“Cost of egress remains an issue, so broadcasters are focused on studying the total cost of ownership to ensure full value for their investment,” he said.
James Fraser, vice president of U.S. sales at content discovery platform developer Moments Lab, observed that most broadcasters are either actively migrating their archives to the cloud or running a hybrid model.
“But they have a clear road map over time to push more content into the cloud because of accessibility,” he said. “On-premises systems have done a tremendous job over the years, but cloud technology has allowed organizations more global access to their content, both from within the business and for third parties.”
Ease of access and moving away from physical in-house libraries would appear to be compelling arguments in favor of cloud-based archives, but SSD, HDD and tape systems are still used by on-prem setups. Other World Computing (OWC) is known for its range of internal SSD and RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) systems, but last year launched the Archive Pro Ethernet network-based LTO backup and archiving system.
“We were not an LTO company and I wasn’t an advocate for it,” OWC Founder and CEO Larry O’Connor said. “But from large organizations to individual producers, there is a desire to have what is ultimately cost-effective storage that’s air-gapped and has longevity without requiring ongoing maintenance.”
O’Connor called the cloud “an amazing tool,” but said the cost of uploading and then accessing content can be “exorbitant.” That hasn’t been AWS’ experience, Lone said, citing public broadcaster Korean Broadcasting System (KBS), which has moved all of its digital media services into the cloud.
“This has allowed them the flexibility to support its surging traffic and maintain security but [also] save more than 50% on event services,” she said. “When thinking about the cost implications of moving broadcast archives, each customer’s implementation varies.”
What About AI?
As part of this, Lone said, many broadcasters and media-related organizations are utilizing AI and machine learning (ML) to automate tagging of assets transferred to the cloud “for better discoverability.” A recent report on the archive market confirms this, showing AI-driven media archives are now “a top priority across nearly every M&E segment.”
The State of Media Archiving survey from object-based storage specialist Pixitmedia by DataCore revealed that of the 330 M&E professionals questioned, 30% of studios and 46% of enterprises are embedding AI/ML “to enhance content operations.”
The survey also reveals that only 6% percent of M&E companies have moved to a single platform for media archiving. The overall feeling, as shown by the AAA report, is that hybrid operations are now more the norm, with older technologies, including LTO and drives, still part of the picture for secondary storage, if not the amain archive.
Either way, it is reassuring that preserving TV programs—by whatever means—is now a major consideration for broadcasters and streamers alike.
