Sinclair Selects AWS as its Preferred Cloud Provider

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(Image credit: Getty)

BALTIMORE, M.D.—Sinclair Broadcast Group has announced that it has selected Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS) as the company’s preferred cloud provider.

“The multi-year collaboration is an important step to improve Sinclair’s future operations by migrating its existing media and playout operations to AWS’s Cloud,” said Del Parks, president of Technology for Sinclair. “The move to AWS is essential to accelerate Sinclair’s ability to take advantage of the new business opportunities that ATSC 3.0 provides and improve the television viewing experience for the consumer.”

Sinclair reported that the AWS Cloud will help power the company’s efforts to create more compelling, multi-platform local news and sports content that can be distributed across fixed and mobile devices, as well as more interactive experiences for communities and fans. Sinclair’s migration to the cloud will also help enable enhanced tools to be integrated across the company’s networks for advertisers and partners.

“We are welcoming and embracing a new era of technology flexibility, providing Sinclair with the platform agility to strengthen our existing business models and adopt new ones, while effectively optimizing costs,” explained Brian Bark, Sinclair’s executive vice president and chief information officer. 

Sinclair plans to leverage AWS Media Services, such as AWS Elemental MediaConnect, to develop centralized, dynamic and scalable media operations for 200+ channels, including converged media storage and optimized media workflows with relevant metadata. 

The company also will use the compute, storage, databases, and other services and solutions from AWS and AWS Partners to create secure, streamlined, and resilient linear channel assembly and playout from the cloud.

Mike Kralec, Sinclair’s senior vice president and CTO added that this “collaboration with AWS enables Sinclair to execute our vision for business transformation through optimized media and content operations. While this first step focuses on the core capabilities of our cloud media workflows and linear channel assembly, we expect this commitment to cloud to be our foundation for additional advancements and transformation in the future, especially as it relates to our implementation of ATSC 3.0 services.” 

George Winslow

George Winslow is the senior content producer for TV Tech. He has written about the television, media and technology industries for nearly 30 years for such publications as Broadcasting & Cable, Multichannel News and TV Tech. Over the years, he has edited a number of magazines, including Multichannel News International and World Screen, and moderated panels at such major industry events as NAB and MIP TV. He has published two books and dozens of encyclopedia articles on such subjects as the media, New York City history and economics.