Post-Production for Streaming Platforms vs Broadcast Television

The core craft of editing, colour, and sound is the same—but the finishing path to streaming platforms is not identical to the path to broadcast.

As distribution models have expanded, post-production teams have had to adapt to multiple sets of delivery requirements. Traditional broadcasters work to long-established technical standards and quality control processes. Streaming platforms introduce different resolutions, codecs, localisation needs, and viewing environments. Understanding these distinctions early in a project helps avoid surprises when final masters are due.

Technical Standards and Specifications

Broadcast television in the UK and Europe is governed by strict delivery specifications, typically documented by each broadcaster. These specifications cover everything from permitted codecs and frame rates to audio loudness and legal gamut limits. Files that fail technical quality control can be rejected, requiring fixes and re-delivery. As a result, broadcast finishing workflows are built around predictability and compliance.

Streaming platforms such as Netflix, Amazon, or regional VOD services often support higher resolutions, HDR formats, and multiple audio configurations. They may also accept a wider variety of mezzanine formats, but expect consistent metadata, subtitle tracks, and localisation assets. Each major platform publishes its own technical specification, and professional post facilities design their pipelines to align with these documents.

Quality Control and Review

For broadcast, quality control usually includes a detailed human review combined with automated measurement of loudness, gamut, and other metrics. Any issues—such as audio clicks, flash frames, or dropouts—must be resolved and re-checked before transmission. This process protects both the broadcaster and the audience experience on linear channels.

Streaming platforms also run internal QC, but the focus can include different aspects: correct aspect ratios across devices, subtitle and dubbing alignment, consistent loudness between episodes, and compression artefacts introduced by the platform’s own encoding. For long-form series, maintaining consistency across seasons and localised versions becomes just as important as passing a single one-off QC pass.

Creative Considerations and Viewing Context

Broadcast content is still primarily experienced in living rooms on television sets, often with standard dynamic range and conventional surround or stereo setups. Streaming content may be viewed on anything from phones and laptops to calibrated home cinema systems. Colour and sound decisions therefore need to translate across a wider range of environments, and monitoring strategies in post must account for this.

In practice, this means checking how grades hold up at different brightness levels, and ensuring that dialogue remains intelligible on smaller speakers without sacrificing depth on larger systems. For series distributed globally, there may also be additional creative reviews around localisation, where graphics, captions, and on-screen text need to work in multiple languages without undermining design.

Our team at Midnight Embers is used to delivering to both broadcast and streaming specifications. If you are planning a multi-platform release, we can help design a finishing workflow that respects the needs of each outlet. Learn more on our services page or contact us to discuss your project.

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