Case Study: American Public Television achieves scalable, low-cost cloud storage and faster content distribution with Backblaze B2

American Public Television is using B2 to backup media files

American Public Television (APT), which distributes programming to 350+ public television stations, faced rapidly growing digital storage needs and a fragmented distribution landscape where some stations relied on satellite while others still received tapes by mail. VP of Technology Gerry Field needed a more scalable, file-based workflow and turned to Backblaze’s B2 Cloud Storage to address both exploding capacity requirements and distribution gaps.

Backblaze implemented B2 as APT’s active storage, archive, and internet distribution layer, giving APT “unlimited” cloud capacity without new hardware and a pay-as-you-go model. The move cut storage costs dramatically (B2 at $0.005/GB/month and $0.01/GB downloads — roughly 75% less than S3/Azure), sped content delivery to smaller and remote stations compared with mailed tape, and enabled easier program submissions and new distribution or monetization options.

American Public Television

Gerry Field

Vice President of Technology