Universal content production - more bang for the byte

The broadcasting and film-making industries are fragmenting in one sense yet uniting in another. Broadcasting is separating into content creators versus content distributors, while the film industry is embracing a new mix of traditional photo-chemical and cutting-edge digital. The creators want to sell the same content to as many buyers as possible and to be paid in transporting the content in any format. Significant economic benefits accrue through reduced duplication of work and streamlined workflows in this realignment. Disparate technologies, standards, and practices are used to obstruct these desires. Now broadcasters are taking steps in making the content more universal (metadata, MXF, etc.) and film-makers are adopting the "digital intermediate" approach to make single-inventory masters for theatrical, broadcast, and packaged distribution.