Case Study: Discovery Communications accelerates cloud delivery and eliminates metadata errors with Signiant's Flight (Web Transfer API)

At Discovery, over 600 production partners are delivering to the cloud, turning what took days into just hours

Discovery Communications works with more than 600 production partners to deliver thousands of hours of non-fiction content, with roughly 30 different types of deliverables and most program packages producing 40–60 GB files. Relying on physical LTO tape and manual metadata entry forced producers to become file-delivery experts, leading to formatting errors, costly round-trip shipments, and long delays before content reached Discovery’s QC and cloud systems.

To solve this, Discovery integrated Signiant’s Flight Web Transfer API into its existing Producer’s Portal, enabling high-speed browser uploads directly into Discovery’s AWS cloud. The new workflow eliminated most manual metadata entry, let producers fix errors in real time, provided delivery status tracking, and automatically tied assets into QC and transcode workflows — cutting submission time to about 2.5 hours while enabling two automated quality checks and four transcodes, and greatly reducing reshipments and time-to-market.

Discovery Communications

Josh Derby

VP of Technology Development & Strategy, Discovery Communications