NAB Show New York 2025: Backblaze to Highlight Media Workflows and Pricing Transparency

Backblaze, Inc., a cloud storage innovator providing a modern alternative to traditional cloud providers, announced it will be exhibiting at the NAB Show New York from October 22-23, 2025, booth 623, where they will showcase new research in partnership with Dimensional Research that reveals how hidden cloud storage costs are reshaping video workflows across the M&E (M&E) industry.The study, based on a survey of 101 M&E leaders managing over 250TB of cloud infrastructure, found that rising egress fees and unpredictable billing models are forcing companies to make trade-offs that directly impact content availability, archives, and production strategies.

Cloud bills undermine content workflows
According to the research, 93% of media organizations report being hit with unexpected cloud storage fees, with nearly half incurring them monthly or more often. To manage costs, companies are making difficult compromises:

• 61% reduce dataset sizes to control storage bills, limiting access to valuable content archives
• 49% shorten retention policies, risking the loss of media that could be repurposed or redistributed
• 41% curtail usage of existing libraries, reducing monetization opportunities
• 29% cut staff allocation or headcount tied to content workflows

“The data shows what media professionals know from experience: production and distribution workflows are being throttled not by technology, but by cloud economics,” said Gleb Budman, CEO, Backblaze. “Innovation is a function of how freely data can move. If every hop from archive to AI tool, or from mezzanines to CDNs adds egress risk, you narrow your options. Our job is to remove that friction.”

Locked in by costs, ready for change
The survey also highlights how restrictive cloud pricing models are keeping M&E companies tied to providers that may no longer fit their needs:

• 50% cite egress and data movement costs as the biggest barrier to switching providers
• 34% are contract-locked, while 42% cite technical complexity as another major barrier
• Despite these hurdles, 64% are at least slightly likely to consider switching providers in the next year-a signal that demand for transparent, best-of-breed options is rising

M&E leaders also highlighted the attributes they value most in a storage provider: compliance (50%), ease of use (42%), customer support (37%), and high throughput (31%)-all critical to video workflows that span creation, post-production, and global distribution.

Industry philosophy is also shifting: 67% of M&E organizations prefer best-of-breed technology approaches over one-stop-shop solutions, underscoring growing frustration with restrictive ecosystems.