Broadcast journalists lose 75% of time to technical busywork, study finds
A report by Quickplay and Caretta Research indicates that North American broadcast journalists dedicate 75% of their time to technical workflows due to fragmented archives and linear-focused processes. The findings advocate for the adoption of unified, software-orchestrated production layers to enable broadcasters to compete effectively in a digital-first streaming landscape.
Key Takeaways
- Fragmented archives spread across multiple media asset management (MAM) systems force staff to rely on tribal knowledge rather than automated search.
- Traditional linear workflows are identified as too slow to meet the publishing cadence required by social and OTT streaming platforms.
- Adopting unified orchestration layers could allow broadcasters to prioritize vertical video and digital-first formats over traditional broadcast recuts.
- Quickplay and Caretta experts warn that technical friction is an 'existential' threat to local stations attempting to maintain relevance in the streaming era.
Why It Matters
The high volume of manual technical labor in broadcast newsrooms prevents local stations from capitalizing on their most valuable asset: localized expertise. By losing three-quarters of their time to asset retrieval and workflow friction, broadcasters cannot produce the sheer output required for social and FAST channel growth. To survive, the industry must pivot toward software-orchestrated production that automates distribution handoffs. This shift is critical for local broadcasters to effectively pivot to digital-first models before their linear audience erosion becomes irreversible. Watch for increased adoption of multi-format content engines that enable a single story to be packaged simultaneously for vertical social, streaming, and linear feeds.
Additional Context
The transition to automated newsroom workflows is gaining pace as media organizations move from experimental AI to structural integration. Per Reuters Institute, April 2026, roughly 97% of newsroom leaders now view back-end automation as a strategic priority to bridge the gap between early adopters and legacy operations. This trend is mirrored by the Associated Press, which has increasingly positioned AI as a distribution and efficiency layer, using it to automate routine data-driven tasks like earnings reports and sports summaries while freeing journalists for high-impact investigative work. Additionally, per Informa, November 2024, the Media Asset Management (MAM) market remains highly fragmented, with specialized vendors in production asset management (PAM) and localization struggling with customer overlap. However, the market is projected to reach $2.3 billion by 2028 as competition among streamers drives demand for cloud-native, AI-enabled solutions that facilitate remote collaboration. Meanwhile, Nielsen data from August 2025 highlights the urgency of this transition, recording a 69% year-over-year increase in viewers accessing local stations via OTT and digital-only platforms. Large-scale deployments, such as Gray Media’s consolidation of 1,300 digital touchpoints onto a single cloud-native platform in early 2026, suggest that major broadcasters are now prioritizing interoperable systems to solve the fragmentation issues highlighted in the Caretta-Quickplay report.
Read full article at sportsvideo.org
Get this in your inbox → Subscribe
Enjoy our coverage?
Add StreamingMeme as a preferred source on Google to see more of our streaming news at the top of your Search results.
Add as preferred source