Demystifying Cloud Energy Usage in Broadcasting - An EBU Technical Review

By Kristan Bullett, CEO, Humans Not Robots  

The broadcasting industry has witnessed a seismic shift in operations over the last decade, with cloud services now playing a central role in workflows, data storage, and content delivery. But as much as cloud computing has streamlined broadcasting processes, its environmental impact is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore.  

At Humans Not Robots, we recently collaborated with the EBU to analyse cloud energy usage and its carbon emissions in broadcasting. Our goal was to help European broadcasters understand what to measure and how to measure it.

This project was eye-opening, revealing both the gaps and opportunities for sustainable improvements in how our industry handles cloud technology.  

In this blog, we explore how energy-efficient cloud solutions can benefit the industry and give you a sneak peek into our findings.

The Problem with Cloud Sustainability

At its core, the challenge lies in transparency. Broadcasters need timely, actionable data to measure the environmental impact of their cloud operations effectively—but receiving accurate data from cloud providers can take up to three months. This delay makes real-time environmental improvements nearly impossible. Additionally, the flexibility and accessibility of cloud services make it easy to make decisions that can quickly lead to rising costs.

But this is just the tip of the iceberg. Other key issues include:  

• Lack of Standardised Measurement: There are no universal mandates or metrics for accurately measuring cloud energy use and emissions. While reporting exists, it often lacks the detail needed, leaving many broadcasters without a clear strategy.

• Scope 3 Challenges: Most cloud-related emissions fall under Scope 3 (indirect emissions), which makes them difficult to track and attribute at an organisational level.  

• Data Granularity: Broadcasters require more detailed reporting, with insights broken down by specific projects or workflows. However, cloud providers rarely offer this level of detail. Such granularity is essential for understanding the origins of costs, tracking spending trends, and identifying opportunities to reduce expenses over time.

These barriers hinder organisations from making measurable progress toward reducing their environmental impact.  

Our Approach

To tackle these challenges, we tested various cloud energy assessment tools, with a particular focus on Cloud Carbon Footprint (CCF), an open-source tool that provides insights into cloud energy consumption and carbon emissions. Here's what we did.

1. Data Collection:

• We analysed three months of cloud usage data from the EBU’s AWS account.  

• This raw data included cost and usage reports, which we enriched with third-party datasets (such as Cloud Carbon Footprint) to estimate CO2e emissions and watt-hours.  

2. Generating Metrics:  

• Using publicly available energy conversion factors and data from cloud providers, we calculated power usage effectiveness (PUE) and carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2e).  

• These metrics provide a baseline for estimating the cloud’s environmental impact and add an additional layer to the existing financial cost view by considering energy and carbon perspectives.  

3. Mapping Workflows:

• We contextualised the data to connect cloud service energy use with specific broadcasting workflows, aligning the metrics with EBU business operations.  

• This approach creates a clearer picture of how, where, and why energy was being consumed, enabling a deeper understanding of potential efficiency improvements.  

Results

Our findings confirm that broadcasters can achieve significant efficiency improvements by refining their cloud operations. Tracking metrics such as CO2e per million user requests (rather than just raw energy consumption data) can offer more insightful KPIs aligned with business and sustainability goals.  

Why Broadcasters Need to Act

We’re long past the time when sustainability could be considered optional. Broadcasters need to act now and address their cloud energy usage for several pressing reasons:  

• Audience Expectations: Consumers increasingly expect companies to operate responsibly and make tangible environmental commitments. The younger generation, in particular, places a high value on corporate sustainability efforts.  

• Reputational Risk: ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) compliance is no longer limited to industry insiders or regulators. Broadcasters lagging in sustainability risk becoming public targets of criticism.  

• Economic Opportunities: Reducing cloud energy usage not only benefits the planet but can also lead to significant cost savings. Sustainable operations often go hand in hand with improved efficiency and lower overheads.  

Tangible Next Steps

Here are actionable steps broadcasters can take to make meaningful progress in their cloud sustainability efforts today:  

1. Measure More, Measure Continuously: Without measurements, it’s impossible to track progress. Start by leveraging tools like HNR to ZERO to monitor your cloud usage data.  

2. Enrich Your Data: Beyond measuring costs, start drilling into data trends by workflow, project, or client. The more granular the data, the more targeted your efforts can be.  

3. Set Relevant KPIs: Move beyond cost-centric KPIs and focus on sustainability-related metrics, such as CO2e per workflow or energy usage per unit of content delivered.  

4. Optimise Workflows: Collaborate with cloud providers and industry stakeholders to identify energy-saving opportunities. From reconfiguring workloads to adopting greener data centers, there’s plenty of low-hanging fruit to tackle.  

5. Shift the Mindset: Encourage your teams to think in terms of usage-based metrics rather than cost-based estimations. This mindset shift can create a stronger focus on environmental impact, not just profitability.  

Join the Conversation

At Humans Not Robots, we're passionate about helping broadcasters reduce their carbon footprint while maintaining peak performance. Our joint study with the EBU reaffirms that collaboration and innovation are key to driving meaningful change in the industry.

If you’d like to learn more about our findings, download the full white paper from the EBU website HERE, and book a demo to explore how HNR to ZERO can give your digital infrastructure a sustainable edge.  

Together, we can shape a broadcasting future that’s as eco-friendly as it is efficient.  

The full paper is available to download from the EBU's Technology & Innovation website.