Lionsgate is licensing a proprietary cloud tech platform from Ateliere Creative Technologies to help manage the studio’s content library and distribution of assets to streaming services. They’re keeping the financial terms of the deal under wraps.
Lionsgate will deploy Ateliere Connect media supply chain platform to serve as the content hub for the studio’s 17,000-plus film and TV title library, spanning blockbuster brands and franchises including John Wick, “The Hunger Games,” The Twilight Saga, “Dirty Dancing,” The Expendables, “Power,” “Now You See Me” and “Mad Men”
Ateliere deploys its platform on Amazon Web Services (AWS) and is “leveraging next generation” services from Amazon that are faster and more efficient, able to “deploy in days and weeks versus months or years,” founder and CEO of Ateliere Dan Goman told The Wrap.
One of the areas that the partnership will help Lionsgate will be in addressing the duplication of content, Goman said, adding it can get expensive and redundant when content libraries are moved into the cloud. As an example, he cited an unnamed company was able to trim its operating costs for its supply chain down from $90 million to $25 million.
Goman said the deal shows Lionsgate sees potential in Ateliere’s capabilities as it looks towards the future and “positions themselves for success going forward. It starts with a supply chain that can handle the demands and can operate at the speed of digital.”
“Ateliere Connect will play an invaluable role in helping us migrate our distribution assets into the cloud and effectively transform our operational workflows by taking advantage of the efficiencies of a cloud ecosystem. This will enhance how we manage and monetize our company’s valuable library content,” Akin Ceylan, Lionsgate’s COO of Home Entertainment and Global Content Distribution Operations, said in a statement. “Ateliere offers cutting-edge technology that has proven to be extremely valuable in today’s fast-changing and competitive media landscape and will maximize flexibility to navigate quickly in working with both our servicing partners and customers.”
The result of cost savings from optimized backend infrastructure translates to consumers through efficiency — especially important as we move into rough economic times. While streaming services’ subscription prices may vary based on a host of factors, consumers “can expect to see their shows produced faster and show up on streaming services quicker,” Goman said.
With monetization becoming a central focus in a competitive streaming landscape, Lionsgate’s move to consolidate its “global, unified media supply chain as opposed to many disparate ones” means the studio viably reins in “cost overruns, inefficiencies and time delays,” according to Goman.
Comparing the entertainment companies’ supply chain revolution to a company with a lean supply chain such as Walmart, Goman said the goal for companies using Ateliere is the delivery of goods in time at a cost lower than the competitors.
Goman believes that what Ateliere is bringing to Lionsgate is existential to a point that it becomes a “differentiator in terms of success or failure,” Goman said, adding his company’s flexibility was one of the reasons for Lionsgate’s decision to partner up.
