FEED Winter 2023 Newsletter

“Part of the reason to [use a DC] is that you hope to benefit from achievement levels around power, air-conditioning and resource management that no individual broadcaster could bring to the table; it shouldn’t be a broadcaster’s core business,” he says. “There is also the issue of being able to get exactly the amount of capacity you require; for example, if you need 5.5 racks of space you can book precisely that [in a DC]. If you are constructing your own facility, you aren’t building small and invariably are including expansion. A lot of idle infrastructure and you’ve lost business flexibility.” But while he is adamant that there is no ‘chicken and egg’ dilemma when it comes to the DC narrative – “it’s the symptom, not the cause; the cause is the modern world” – Radoczy agrees that a lack of standard metrics and across-the-board transparency do present major existential problems for M&E organisations wanting to operate sustainably. “This is definitely not a new issue – in fact, I can recall reading articles about it as far back as 2012 – but the huge growth in demand obviously makes it much more acute,” says Radoczy. “I do see more [DC providers] highlighting their green credentials and there is clearly a movement in that direction. But I think that as an industry there is a need to bang the drum so we can get a good, consistent set of metrics and more expert analysis of what actually

constitutes a well-run DC. For example, if you have to buy a washing machine, there is a standard set of metrics that allows you to do a comparison and make an informed decision. With DCs, that would include aspects such as the power efficiency, air- conditioning and amount of waste. That kind of broader perspective would be very useful indeed [for M&E customers].” Inherent in all of this is a recognition that media users do have power to help move the needle on DC decarbonisation. “It should be a stipulation of who you give your business to,” says Radoczy. “And if you as an organisation feel strongly about this, you should be prepared for the fact that it may cost more money to select the [most sustainable option]. It’s not much good if you then commit to a coal fire- powered DC in China! These are the kind of choices that you can make as a business.”