One hub for VOD scheduling and content supply
A cable and digital media company runs its on-demand content supply chain in Airtable: app tray planning and asset assignment, VOD scheduling and promo availability windows, QA checks for pre-roll, thumbnails, and playback, and vendor onboarding with delivery specs. Content Operations and Product Management replaced a heavy legacy CRM implementation with a single source of truth that stood up in about two weeks.
The problem
Content Operations and Product Management were running the on-demand supply chain on a heavy legacy CRM deployment and a patchwork of spreadsheets. Distribution metadata came in through manual CSV copy and paste, and external Excel tracking documents added another layer of rekeying before anything reached the catalog.
Vendor onboarding and delivery spec distribution ran through email and shared drives with dual permissioning friction, and security policy blocked the automation tools the team wanted to use to connect systems, so every handoff stayed manual.
What they built
The team built a single base that plans app trays and assigns assets, tracks VOD scheduling and promo availability windows, and runs QA checks for pre-roll, thumbnails, and playback before anything publishes to the app catalog.
The same base manages distribution metadata, converts segment timecodes automatically, and handles vendor onboarding and delivery spec distribution, connecting to the existing MAM system and Excel and SharePoint sources the team already relied on.
The outcome
The new system replaced the legacy CRM deployment in about two weeks, a fraction of the time and cost of the tool it displaced, while eliminating the manual data entry that used to slow programming operations down.
Content Operations and Product Management now work from one consolidated vendor and production hub, giving the team faster speed to market for linear and on-demand deliverables alike.
Inside the solution
Content Supply Chain & VOD Scheduling
Content Production & Localization
- App tray planning and asset assignment
- VOD scheduling and promo availability tracking
- QA checks for pre-roll, thumbnails, and playback
- MAM metadata wrangling and extraction
- Distribution metadata management
- Vendor onboarding and delivery spec distribution
- Segment timecode auto-conversion
- Heavy manual data entry and CSV copy and paste
- Reliance on external Excel tracking documents
- Security policy blocking automation integrations
- Costly and heavy legacy CRM systems
- Dual permissioning friction across file shares
- Eliminated manual data entry steps
- Faster programming operations
- Rapid time to value versus the legacy CRM
- Two week implementation speed
- Faster speed to market for linear deliverables
- Consolidated vendor and production hub
- Media Operations
- Editorial
- Product Management
- Content Acquisitions
- Scheduling
- Creative Services
- Excel
- MAM system
- SharePoint
Content Operations & VOD Scheduling
Run the whole on-demand content supply chain in one base: plan app trays and assign assets, track VOD scheduling and promo availability windows, clear pre-roll, thumbnail, caption, and playback QA, manage distribution metadata, and onboard delivery vendors with versioned specs. Automations open the QA checklist on intake, hold assets when a blocker fails, issue vendor spec packages, and email a weekly expiring-window digest, while AI columns draft catalog synopses, QA escalation notes, and publish-readiness triage.
From manual CSV handling to a single supply chain hub
Copy the templates
Centralize the metadata
Automate the handoffs
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Each asset and each vendor record links into the same base, so a scheduling change and a delivery spec update both trace back to one record with its own QA and availability status.
Structured intake from the MAM system and Excel sources feeds linked tables directly, so distribution metadata no longer requires rekeying by hand.
The team replaced the legacy CRM implementation in about two weeks, versus a much longer and costlier rollout for the system it displaced.
The legacy system was expensive to maintain and slow to adapt. Moving the workflow into a shared base gave Content Operations a faster, lower cost system of record with the same governance.
Not for the core scheduling and vendor workflows. The structured metadata and delivery records built here are the foundation for AI powered data ingestion the account is exploring separately.