The broadcast and streaming sector, despite growing global climate concerns, lags in prioritizing environmental responsibility. While sustainability features prominently in marketing, actual efforts to reduce carbon emissions often lack rigor and standardization. “It’s not that companies don’t care,” said Simon Parkinson, managing director of Dot Group. “It’s that they don’t measure carbon footprint as well as is needed. Currently, this is still too often a manual ‘checklist’ based method. The data captured and ensuing actions are slow, incomplete and sub-optimal.”
This data gap hinders progress. Accurate metrics are crucial for verifying impact, incentivizing reductions, and creating credible strategies. “Reporting, unfortunately, often relies on estimates based on spending, rather than a usage-based approach with actual measurements,” noted Kristan Bullett, CEO of Humans Not Robots. “This creates a situation where real optimizations and reductions aren’t properly reflected.”
The scale of the problem is undeniable. A 2025 report from InterDigital and Futuresource Consulting revealed that streaming contributes 4% of global carbon emissions, exceeding the aviation industry’s impact. This encompasses the entire video value chain. The report highlights that each hour of film production generates approximately 16.6 metric tons of CO₂, equivalent to the annual energy consumption of two homes. Major events, like the 2024 Paris Olympics, generated substantial media-related footprints, exceeding 600 million tons of CO₂ with 1.25 terawatt-hours of electricity used for viewing alone. Scope 3 emissions, encompassing indirect emissions, remain largely unaddressed.
Parkinson emphasized the need for allocating emissions data to individual productions and vendors, stating, “the full production lifecycle carbon footprint needs to be captured and allocated accurately.” While European broadcasters are adopting initiatives like the BBC, Sky, and Channel 4's measurement project to track climate-related content, U.S. adoption remains inconsistent. Bullett observed, “In the U.S., the focus on energy independence and fossil fuel extraction has grown,” contrasting it with the “measure, measure, measure” approach of European broadcasters and telcos.
A 2024 Sony Europe survey highlighted industry inertia. While 73% of respondents reported sustainability improvements, fewer than half indicated active investment. Key barriers included financial constraints (47%), outdated mindsets (41%), and limited sustainable products (28%). Parkinson linked this to outdated reporting tools, stating, “Platforms that require human entry of data will never be real-time nor pinpoint accurate. Automated monitoring of virtual machines and cloud environments provides the minute detail necessary for meaningful optimization.”
Technological solutions are emerging. Cloud-based workflows enable broadcasters to scale energy use according to production demands. Jason O’Malley, senior partner solutions architect at Amazon Web Services, explained, “Historically, production infrastructure ran at peak capacity all the time. Now, we can provision resources just for live events and release them immediately afterward.”
The consensus is that addressing the sustainability challenge necessitates data-driven approaches. Real-time, production-specific measurement is seen as pivotal for both environmental and business gains. Bullett emphasized, “Unless reductions are captured and reflected in reporting, there’s no incentive to change.” Parkinson added that better data promotes internal alignment and external credibility. “Sustainable practices signal innovation and ethics,” he said. “They also open doors to new sponsorship opportunities with environmentally focused brands.”
However, structural challenges persist. As Olivier Bovis from Sony noted, “Beyond the financial aspect, we found a change in mindsets is what most needs to take place… Sustainability should be considered a currency used to implement changes.” Without improved measurement, sustainability remains a rhetorical goal easily sidelined.