Channel 5, now branded 5, has moved its multi-platform streaming packaging workflow to AWS Elemental MediaPackage v2.
The previous design used separate paths: a third-party pre-segmented packager and MediaStore for DVB-DASH, plus MediaPackage v1 for MPEG-DASH and HLS. AWS says the new design uses one just-in-time packaging pipeline and adds native DVB-DASH, accessibility signalling, HLS accessibility tags, flexible SCTE-35 handling and SPEKEv2 DRM.
Why it matters
Packaging duplication is expensive beyond the compute bill. Every parallel path adds monitoring, failover, release and compliance work. Consolidation can reduce those moving parts while keeping platform-specific manifests.
The migration is also a reminder that accessibility metadata must survive the delivery chain. It is not enough to carry captions or audio descriptions at the encoder; the packager and manifest must expose them correctly on each target platform. Teams planning a similar move should validate ad signalling, DRM rotation, failover and player compatibility before switching live services.
