Sam Peterson, chief operating officer at Bitcentral, sees significant changes ahead for broadcast news production as media companies adapt to shifting audience consumption patterns and economic pressures.
“The way that we’re producing news content, particularly for what we thought of as a broadcast audience, is certainly changing because that broadcast audience isn’t still the number one thing that our customers are doing,” Peterson said in an interview during the 2025 NAB Show.
Peterson noted that news organizations recognize that traditional production methods designed for live newscasts must evolve to accommodate multiple distribution points. This evolution includes merging traditional broadcast workflows with digital-first approaches developed separately in many newsrooms.
“We have a lot of tooling that’s been put in place for social and otherwise inside a newsroom,” Peterson said. “How do those workflows merge a little bit? Because there’s been this alternate digital workflow outside of the production control workflow.”
He suggested the industry needs innovation after decades of similar newscast formats, with the potential for new production models that are faster and more cost-effective than traditional approaches. Overall, the broadcast industry has been slow to innovate, with many stations continuing to produce news in formats that haven’t substantially changed in decades.
The production automation control systems implemented 10-15 years ago represented one part of that evolution, but Peterson believes the industry is now ready for another significant transformation in how content is produced and distributed.
Cloud adoption gaining momentum despite economic concerns
Despite initial hesitation about operating expenses, Peterson noted that cloud-based workflows are gaining acceptance among broadcasters, particularly as vendors move from “lift and shift” approaches to cloud-native solutions.
“Even though there has been some reticence about operating expense, I think as vendors have gotten away from a lift-and-shift model and really to a cloud native model, the economics actually make that a feasible thing to do,” Peterson said.
…
Click here to read the full article online: NewscastStudio.com/Bitcentrals-Sam-Peterson-on-Cloud-Adoption