FOX Entertainment Studios Data Retention Policy
I. OVERVIEW
An overview of policies concerning all data stored in active (editorial access) and archive (AWS Glacier) storage.
All media and associated material received from outside production companies and generated by internal editorial teams will be cataloged and archived by the FOX Entertainment Technology (FOX ET) team. This includes but is not limited to: dailies, rough cuts, and finished cuts of full episodes & features received from various production and post facilities; off-air captures; and content created by the editorial and graphics teams going out for broadcast, streaming or social media use.
All effort will be made to retain metadata regarding the origin and editorial use of all received media, when available.
AWS / S3 / Intelligent Tiering and Glacier archive systems will be used to automate movement of media & associated material based on lifecycle and retention policies, dependent on media type and the status of each associated TV/Film production (see: Appendix).
The systems for file management and archive maintenance will be managed by FOX ET. Continual updates and improvements will be made and communicated as often as possible, while maintaining integrity of the archive and all associated editorial systems.
II. Media Sources & Types
Who sends material to FOX Entertainment Technology for archive?
What are they sending?
Production & Post Production
Media received for various productions (feature & series), as they become available, including but not limited to: original camera and sound media, dailies, episodic rough cuts, episodic line cuts, audio, behind-the-scenes, promotional interview footage and value-added material, etc.
Promotional
Finished media produced by and/or stored for FOX Entertainment including but not limited to: final features, episodic and broadcast spots, mixed audio, final editorial sequences, scripts, metadata, graphics, etc.
Media received from other marketing based vendors.
Archive Only
Media received from wrapped productions, for archive purposes only (not intended for editorial).
III. Data Receiving
How do we check the material in?
Who has & can grant access to this material?
Check-in Process
All incoming media passes through the Content Services team for check-in to internal editorial systems and immediate backup to S3 (see section III. Archive / Backup).
Who Has Access?
ET: Media Resource Engineers (Content Services), Engineers-In-Charge, Engineering teams
Editorial: Offline Editors, Producers, Audio Mixers, Finishing Editors and Assistant Editors
Graphics: Graphics artists & coordinators
Who Grants Access?
ET: Engineers-In-Charge can grant access to new users.
Editorial: can share cuts & sequences of in-progress and finished spots via FOX Verified Apps (ex. Frame.io, Screeners.com, etc).
IV. Archive / Backup
How and when do we backup all received material?
Policy
All incoming media is backed up to S3 as soon as it is checked in & verified.
All received media will be retained until policy limit has been reached, dependent on media type & show needs.
(See section V. Retention)Permitted users can directly restore archived media as needed, including on behalf of others
(See section VI. Retrieval for additional restore requests)
Security & Recovery
(see section VIII. Archive Security)
Periodic Testing
The Ent Tech team will conduct monthly archive tests to verify system integrity.
Reports can be made available upon request.
V. Lifecycle Policies
How is archived data organized?
When does it get pushed to colder tiers of storage?
Archive Storage Tiers
- Movement through archival tiers is dependent on media type, show longevity/status, current season, and marketing needs.
By Show
Episodic shows with seasons currently airing: all material for current season (+n previous) will be kept available in both active storage and archive instant retrieval.
Once a show is canceled, all material will be removed from internal editorial access and any S3 tier except Deep Archive.
By Media Type
Dailies for currently airing (+n) season will be kept available in Active Storage (Nexis) and Glacier Instant Retrieval.
Dailies from previous seasons can be removed from internal editorial access and Glacier Instant Retrieval, to be stored in Deep Archive for duration of retention policy.
Rough to Online cuts can be removed from Instant Retrieval once season finishes airing, as long as Aircopies have been verified and received.
VI. Retention
How long do we keep the data?
Active Editorial Storage
- Most television series' media will be kept online in active storage until the current season + 1 subsequent season has aired.
- See also: Network Promo Editorial data retention policy
Archive - Intelligent Tiering & Glacier Instant Retrieval
Media from each show/production will be kept in upper tiers (ex. Frequent Use Tier, Glacier Instant Retrieval, etc.) according to the lifecycle of that media type.
The most common period will be 30 - 60 days in the topmost Frequent Use tier, and 1-2 years in Glacier Instant Retrieval.
Exceptions will be made based on show status & show needs.
Archive - Glacier Deep Archive
Media from each show/production will be kept in Deep Archive
[life cycle limit TBD]
Verifying the end of a life cycle
Verification is currently a manual process. Material will not be removed without manual verification and approval.
This process may be automated in the future.
VII. Retrieval
How do we access & restore archived data?
Who Can request?
Editorial Staff
3rd Party Vendors
How To Request
[Editorial only] Self Service - through Interplay user interface
[Editorial & Vendors] - Request Form coming soon!
Turnaround
Minimum of 24 hours for small excavation
Minimum of 48 hours for large excavation
ex. all dailies for one shooting day
VIII. Deletion
How do we remove data that has reached end-of-life?
Who is able to permanently delete?
ET: Engineers-In-Charge and Engineering only
How do we confirm it is time?
Determined by lifecycle policies (see Sec V. Retention)
Verification and approval will be processed manually (may be automated in the future).
How do we know it is gone?
A record of deletion will be kept by the ET team, for all previously stored media that has reached the end of its deep archive lifecycle policy.
Metadata will be retained for all time as the lasting record of data’s origins, movement and deletion.
IX. Archive Security
How is security assured and maintained?
Who has immediate access?
ET: S3, and all editorial access
Editorial: Nexis, Interplay, catDV
Who can be given access?
No external teams have access to the FEMPPT S3 archive.
All retrievals will need to be requested through proper channels.
Who grants the access?
ET: Engineers-In-Charge, Engineering
What can 3rd parties see & do?
3rd parties can only put in requests and see the retrieved media.
X. Recovery
Summary
Our cybersecurity, risk tolerance and recovery policies are based on assessment by and recommendations from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).
See Incident Response Plan for full recovery policy.
See Appendix [Sec 2.] for additional Security & Risk Tolerance information.
Communication
Who communicates, to whom & when?
- ET will communicate to stakeholders within and outside of FOX all policies and expectations regarding all stored data.
Acknowledgement
- Signed forms acknowledging receipt & understanding of retention policy.
Sunsetting Alerts
- Periodic alerts about media scheduled to be removed from deep archive will be a manual process, but may be automated in the future.
Contact Information
APPENDIX
AWS Storage (S3 -> Intelligent Tiering -> Glacier)
Data will be kept in immediate access & quick retrieval tiers (higher cost) only as long as the material is needed by show and project-based stakeholders.
Data will be moved to long term, “colder” storage (lower cost) as quickly as show & project needs allow, in order to keep storage costs low and maintain the integrity of high traffic editorial environments.
NIST Security Policies
- Information on FOX Entertainment Technology risk tolerance, risk management and security breach protocols can be found on the Risk Tolerance info page.