Powering the next wave of media production with Box

At Box, we know content is the lifeblood of every industry, especially the Media & Entertainment (M&E) industry. From scripts and production specs, to videos and talent agreements, content is what powers M&E organizations. With IBC2023 just having taken place over in Amsterdam, dialogue around technology and innovation in the sector is everywhere, making us incredibly excited about the power of creativity in building the next wave of media production. 

Box is proud to be a strategic technology partner to many leading production houses, studios and agencies worldwide, supporting them in their missions to bring their creative visions to life. As the globalization of the M&E business widens, we’re seeing particularly strong momentum and development in the industry in Europe. For example, in the UK alone, M&E revenue is already expected to reach £83 billion this year. In Germany, M&E growth rate is also building momentum and is expected to increase by 12% year-on-year. Over in France, there are plans to double the country’s animation workforce by 2030.

One of our leading European customers is Banijay Germany, the largest independent production company in Germany that selected Box as its central work platform and collaboration tool to help make its offices “paperless.” From the development and production of new television formats with colleagues around the world, to feedback processes with clients, to the creation of schedules for various scripted reality formats - all work steps take place on Box.

“Box enables an extreme increase in productivity,” said Sebastian Menge, Head of IT at Banijay Germany. “You don't search for data anymore, you find it.”

Bolstering security capabilities 

As more and more media and production companies harness the power of the Content Cloud, we’re always thinking one step ahead about how we can continue to develop our platform to meet changing industry needs. That includes bolstering security to combat cyberattacks and industry threats, which are only continuing to escalate. Copyrighted content at the heart of the industry is a coveted asset that lures perpetrators, putting production companies at greater risk of ransomware attacks. With M&E organizations ingesting more and more consumer data than ever before, and consumers subscribing to multiple streaming services, there is a real fresh urgency to use classification processes to protect this sensitive data. With Box, M&E companies can:

• Ensure sensitive pre-release content is properly classified as internal only, and is not available for download before its release date;
• Protect confidential contracts and NDAs against leaks and ransomware with granular permissions;
• Detect suspicious user activity and immediately alert admins about content-centric threats to sensitive information, such as information about mergers and acquisitions.

Security continues to be of the utmost importance to all companies in the M&E sector, small and large, especially as they navigate the complex and ever-changing world of regulation, such as GDPR. We’re delighted Box can cater for customers of all sizes, from the likes of BBC Studios, whose content has a presence on every major continent, to media production companies in the SME (small and medium-sized enterprises) space. For example, Centric Creative is a UK-based SME video production company that selected Box as its technology partner.

“At Centric Creative we floor the pedal on automotive content creation and produce standout video content for ad campaigns, social media, car launches and industry events. We prioritize digital innovation and the adoption of leading technology to continue to scale and operate our distinctive portfolio,” said Nicholas Fox, Managing Director at Centric Creative. “We selected Box as our secure central platform to manage content in the cloud and boost our collaboration and productivity, as we continue to produce compelling video content.”

Harnessing the potential of unstructured data

Unstructured data — including M&E handbooks, marketing videos, emails, production notes, and so much more — makes up 90% of your business data, according to IDC. Its research illustrates organizations globally are predicted to generate over 73,000 exabytes of unstructured data in 2023 alone. To put this in perspective, if you started a video call 237,823 years ago and ended it today, you would have recorded a single exabyte. One of the biggest challenges with unstructured data is that it’s typically dispersed across a large span of different tools, systems, apps, and users. Just getting a handle on the content an M&E organization may produce and manage is a massive challenge — never mind tapping into it. Box recognizes that centralizing unstructured content is the first step to being able to use it strategically. A centralized content management system offers M&E organizations: 

• The ability to unlock hidden value from huge volumes of diverse and complex datasets;
• Unified content governance and higher data security;
• Increased productivity, with better accessibility to content. 

We’re excited about how cloud content management, the centralization of unstructured data, and deepening of security on our platform will continue to empower our Box customers in TV, film, music, gaming and creative production sectors to generate more content, all while better understanding and gaining unique insights from it. As the industry takes on new challenges and grows and expands, we’re here to support our customers every step of the way, as we continue to build the next wave of media innovation together!

For more on unstructured data in our Box-sponsored IDC white paper, click here.

For more on how Box powers storytelling across Europe through working with media production companies, click here. 

And for more on Box solutions for Media and Entertainment, click here.