FOX and Warner Bros. Take Cloud-first Approach to Accelerate Enterprise Transformation

The cloud-based media production and delivery platform has proved its value over the years, but in particular during high-profile sporting events, which generally translate into unpredictable and spiked viewership demand. Take the 2023 National Football League championship as an example, advanced video delivery workflow was rolled out with optimized settings from signal acquisition through end-viewer delivery, with 4K resolution and HDR color support in near real time. Deploying machine learning services and Amazon SageMaker, FOX generated natural language storylines for live commentary, resulting in a superior fan experience with more than seven million viewers tuned into FOX’s digital stream, achieving a staggering double of the audience from the year prior. 

Taking away the need for complex software engineering, FOX was able to score with digital audiences, curating an extensive platform that answered to next-levels needs of the community, making sure pristine quality was met with unrivalled creativity. FOX EVP, Media & Broadcast Operations, Jeff Dow remarked, “Even though the event was so massive, AWS gave us the confidence that our platform could scale to meet the demand and provide the stability delivery would require. This has freed us to continue focusing on improving the video quality and developing more creative aspects – such as interactivity.”

Merging Businesses with Speed

For businesses, starting with a clean slate may be difficult, but many mergers and acquisitions can also fail to pay off, due to the extortionate amount of time and effort required to fuse two identities into one. By leveraging cloud technology to streamline processes, Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) has been able to integrate WarnerMedia and Discovery together, growing from 270 AWS accounts to thousands since 2022. 

With the assistance of AWS Organizations, the ongoing merger no longer impedes day-to-day operations of either businesses. Enabling policy-based management for multiple AWS accounts, WBD has been able to scale up accounts and services at no additional cost, effectively allocating resources and adhering to best-practice governance policies. Teams can now manage accounts centrally while still building freely and sharing resources, software applications, directories, and services within the organization.

Scaling Up for Good

Before 2019, creating a new account could take up to 2 months, whereas the entire delivery can now be finished within 2 days with the centralized process. Account creation time has been significantly reduced with automation services, thus both businesses can effectively run securely with little interruption. The improved speed of development and deployment not only means smoother operations, content is also created faster for better efficiency at lower cost.

“It’s about how we use the cloud to keep growing. When our development teams have a secure, governed environment, they can work without hindrance and get compelling content into the marketplace and into the homes of our consumers,” noted Bianca Lankford, Vice President of Cloud Security, Warner Bros. Discovery. With more time and resources on hand, editors can put together in-depth content that goes beyond a clickbait headline, making an imperative and positive impact in the industry to prevent widespread fake news consumption across digital channels in the battle for truth.

Besides retaining and building an audience, the introduction of new services and better user experience by traditional platforms bridge the gap in product portfolio, all the more tapping into an uncharted territory in the media and entertainment industry. This is where cloud technology can come into play to create the next big thing for news distribution. The role of AWS is to keep cloud infrastructure accessible and secure, extending technological resources to companies dealing with big transformational changes. By continuing to develop unique features, companies can continue to pioneer the industry, at the same time generating greater business value throughout each step of the expansion journey.