As media companies strive for greater efficiency and reduced expenses, many are moving away from fragmented vendor ecosystems and adopting centralized platforms. This shift aims to eliminate departmental silos and streamline content production and distribution workflows.
Traditional media operations often struggle with disconnected tools and systems, leading to inefficiencies such as redundant software licensing, constant context-switching, and coordination delays. According to industry experts, these fragmented approaches result in substantial hidden costs that only become apparent when organizations consolidate their systems.
“The hidden costs of fragmented media tech stacks add up quickly: Teams lose hours each day searching for assets across disconnected platforms, switching between editing, storage, project management, and review tools, and managing version conflicts that stall production,” said Kathleen Barrett, CEO of Backlight.
These fragmented systems create operational bottlenecks, hindering workflow efficiency. Nav Khangura, VP of sales and business development at TMT Insights, describes these workflows as inefficient relay processes. “In traditional media workflows, time is often lost to manual processes, disconnected tools, and constant context-switching between teams and platforms; like trying to run a relay race without knowing where the next runner is,” said Nav Khangura.
By implementing centralized platforms, media companies can connect disparate tools and workflows while maintaining a unified source of information. These systems leverage application programming interfaces and automation to link previously disconnected processes. Aaron Kroger, director of product marketing and communications at Dalet, emphasizes the importance of a centralized, accessible platform for unified viewing and management.
“To consolidate fragmented processes across departments or vendor systems, organizations should begin with a centralized, accessible platform that enables unified viewing and management,” said Aaron Kroger. “Building on that, integrations can connect disparate tools, workflows, and people while having a single source of truth ensures consistency and eliminates duplication.”
Furthermore, organizations are addressing coordination issues by implementing cloud-based architectures with unified interfaces. This allows teams to manage multiple functions from a single platform, eliminating redundant data entry and reducing coordination requirements between departments. Khangura notes that "Moving to a cloud-based architecture with a single, centralized interface allows teams to manage ingest, QC, approvals, and delivery all in one place.”
Centralized platforms also enable companies to consolidate data management and eliminate conflicting workflows, leading to more coherent strategies and faster responses to market changes. Lucas Bertrand, founder and CEO of Looper Insights, explains that "Centralizing merchandising data into a single platform helps unify reporting and removes redundant or conflicting workflows across teams. This eliminates silos between marketing and platform partners. The result is a more coherent strategy and faster response to market shifts.”
The benefits of implementing centralized platforms are evident in measurable improvements in operational efficiency and cost reduction. The Philadelphia 76ers and New Jersey Devils, for instance, reduced storage management costs by 34% after consolidating their media management systems. Orange Prestations TV tripled graphic output while managing over 730,000 assets following platform consolidation. Other companies report significant reductions in content curation effort and workflow efficiency.
Ivan Verbesselt, chief strategy and marketing officer at Mediagenix, highlights the key areas of ROI calculation for supply chain consolidation: operational efficiency gains, revenue optimization, and risk mitigation. “ROI calculation for supply chain consolidation centers on three key areas: operational efficiency gains, revenue optimization, and risk mitigation,” said Ivan Verbesselt. “When you eliminate duplicate systems, manual handoffs, and data reconciliation across fragmented platforms, labor costs drop significantly while velocity increases.”
Platform consolidation also optimizes revenue through improved content utilization, leading to conversion improvements and increased effective catalog size. According to Verbesselt, “A single source of truth eliminates costly rights violations, missed licensing opportunities, and write-offs from content that never gets properly monetized. The ROI compounds because each improvement amplifies the others.”
Consolidated platforms deliver a strong return on investment through reduced software spend, faster asset discovery, and fewer labor hours spent on file transfers and coordination tasks. Barrett emphasizes that "Consolidating your media ecosystem isn’t just operationally cleaner — it delivers measurable ROI through reduced software spend, faster asset discovery with AI-enhanced metadata, and fewer labor hours spent on file transfers,” said Barrett.
Furthermore, moving to consolidated platforms enables organizations to eliminate perpetual software licenses and underutilized infrastructure. Geoff Stedman, CMO at SDVI, explains that "Moving to a cloud-based architecture provides the opportunity to move away from perpetual software licenses and underutilized infrastructure for the media processing elements of a supply chain,” said Geoff Stedman.
In conclusion, consolidating fragmented tech stacks offers a systematic approach to reducing operational costs, improving workflow efficiency, and enhancing interdepartmental coordination across media organizations.