Why film and TV companies are hesitant to jump onto the cloud

Although the film and TV industry went digital 25 years ago, many production and post-production processes remain siloed and fail to take advantage of cloud technology.

At the same time, many in the industry are shifting from capital expenditure (CapEx) to operational expenditure (OpEx) models, prioritising recurring investments in software and applications over one-off purchases of hardware and equipment.

In recent years, cloud technology has emerged as a key solution, and many companies that experimented with cloud-based platforms to share and store files and complete work remotely during the Covid-19 pandemic are now making the transition more permanent.

According to Broadcast’s Big Tech Survey 2025, which surveyed almost 200 producers, post-houses, and broadcasters, 42% of post-houses have moved part of their workflows to the cloud in the last year. Respondents cited cloud as one of their biggest technology priorities, after AI and computer hardware.

The advantages of cloud

There are many benefits to integrating cloud computing in film and TV. Crucially, the technology is vital in supporting the industry’s increasingly global workflows, allowing teams to access and collaborate on assets wherever they are located.

The key to this is camera-to-cloud (C2C) technology, where the raw footage collected on a shoot is instantaneously uploaded to a shareable platform. Producers and editors can then remotely review and make changes on the same day. C2C also allows virtual effects (VFX) artists to view shot changes in real-time, rather than waiting overnight, which can improve budgeting and project planning. VFX artists working on Disney’s Mulan (2020) used C2C technology to provide daily invoices for animation work, which was a first in the industry.

Alongside shifting workflows to the cloud, post-houses may also benefit from storing content there. As resolution and shooting ratios continue to increase, post-houses have to ensure they have adequate storage to look after content while it is being worked on. The storage can be scaled up and down depending on a project’s size, helping to avoid overspending or the need to invest in new equipment.

Foreseeable drawbacks

However, many post-houses are reluctant to retire on-prem equipment that has not reached the end of its life, especially given the costs associated with migrating content to the cloud. These costs include ingress and egress fees related to uploading and downloading content to and from the cloud. Unsurprisingly, respondents to the Big Tech Survey cited cost as their primary concern with cloud-based storage.

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To get around some of these costs, many companies are opting for a hybrid approach, mixing cloud with on-prem storage and only using the cloud to store active projects. Others have invested in private cloud environments, which can offer more flexibility and customisation. Unlike public cloud services such as AWS and Azure, private environments can be switched off and on when required, saving on power and energy costs.

Ultimately, while the technology offers a plethora of advantages across the media value chain, the costs and logistics of transitioning to the cloud—whether it be workflow or asset migration—may delay its widespread adoption in the short term.

"Why film and TV companies are hesitant to jump onto the cloud" was originally created and published by Verdict, a GlobalData owned brand.

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