Turner taps Amazon for cloud services

Turner has picked Amazon Web Services as its “preferred” cloud provider as it undergoes the process of moving thousands of virtual machines to AWS.

Turner said it has rebuilt its end-to-end media supply chain on AWS and is moving decades of content to the cloud—including a 15-petabyte-sized library of archived CNN videos. AWS said its machine learning capabilities will allow Turner to analyze and extract video metadata for optimizing content delivery systems to add more personalization and provide more information to advertisers, content creators and media research analysts.

“We’re going through the largest technology transformation since Ted Turner started the company, and the advancements we’re making today are enabling us to reimagine what television can be for our viewers,” said Jeremy Legg, chief technology officer at Turner, in a statement. “We’re changing our broadcast technology stack to a fully digital, cloud environment built on AWS, which will enable us to adapt to new video delivery models, as well as provide our viewers with more personalized content and advertisements. Our relationship with AWS and the services they provide are essential to our success. Given that we reach over 80 percent of adults and 70 percent of millennials every month, we needed a cloud provider that has the ability to support massive-scale media businesses like ours which often have spikes in demand across our diverse portfolio.”

RELATED: AWS Elemental launches new media services

The announcement from Amazon and Turner comes just one day after Amazon rolled out a suite of new media services from AWS Elemental. The company is promising broadcast-quality video solutions along with security, durability, availability and scalability for projects like standing up live broadcast channels, converting a library of video-on-demand (VOD) assets for distribution, or streaming live events. AWS Elemental will also incorporate personalized advertisements into streaming video.

AWS said that other media companies using its cloud include Amazon Video, AOL, BBC, Channel 4, C-SPAN, Daily Voice, Discovery Communications, Flipboard, GoPro, Guardian News & Media, Hearst Corporation, Hulu, LIONSGATE, NDTV, Netflix, News International, News UK, Newsweek, PBS, Simfy Africa, Sony DADC, SoundCloud, Spotify, Time Inc. and United Daily News.