Colocation for NYC Media and Entertainment — Where Bandwidth Is the Business
Your content doesn’t stop moving. Your data transfer costs shouldn’t keep growing. Carrier-neutral colocation gives NYC media companies access to 100+ networks competing for your bandwidth spend — at pricing AWS and Azure simply cannot match.
Metro Colo Advisory works with NYC media and entertainment companies — production houses, streaming platforms, content distributors, broadcast operations, and post-production facilities — to find carrier-dense colocation infrastructure that cuts bandwidth costs and scales with content demand.
- Carrier-Neutral Facilities
- 100+ Networks
- NYIIX Internet Exchange Access
- Free to Media Clients
Why Media and Entertainment Infrastructure Is a Different Conversation
Media and entertainment companies have infrastructure requirements that are fundamentally different from every other industry. The compute requirements are significant. The storage requirements are massive. But the defining infrastructure challenge for media businesses is bandwidth — specifically the cost of moving enormous volumes of content at the speed the business demands.
Here is what makes media infrastructure different:
- Bandwidth is not a secondary cost — it is a primary business expense. A financial services firm might move gigabytes of data per day. A media company moves terabytes — sometimes petabytes — every single day. Video files, raw footage, rendered content, live streams, distribution feeds, archive transfers. Every byte that moves costs money. At cloud egress rates those costs compound into figures that shock even experienced technology executives when they see them laid out clearly.
- Cloud egress fees are designed to keep you on cloud. AWS charges $0.08 to $0.09 per gigabyte for data transferred out of their network. At media scale — even modest media scale — this adds up to tens of thousands of dollars per month in fees for data leaving the cloud to reach your audiences, your partners, your post-production workflow, your distribution platforms. These fees exist specifically because the economics of cloud storage are attractive enough to get you in — and the egress fees make leaving expensive. Carrier-neutral colocation eliminates this dynamic entirely.
- Carrier density is a competitive advantage — not just an infrastructure feature. In a carrier-neutral colocation facility with 100 or more networks present — AT&T, Verizon, Lumen, Zayo, Cogent, and dozens of others competing for your bandwidth spend — you negotiate bandwidth pricing from a position of genuine competition.
Carriers want your business and they know they are competing. The rates you achieve in a carrier-neutral environment are dramatically lower than what any single carrier charges in a non-competitive arrangement — and orders of magnitude lower than cloud egress pricing.
- Internet exchange access changes the economics of content delivery. NYC’s Telehouse facility operates NYIIX — the New York International Internet Exchange — one of the world’s largest internet exchanges. Peering at NYIIX means your content reaches major eyeball networks — the ISPs and content delivery networks that serve end users — without paying transit fees. For media companies distributing content directly to audiences this is the single most impactful infrastructure decision available.
- Content workflows demand proximity and speed. Post-production, visual effects, color grading, sound mixing — the collaborative workflows of modern content production require massive file transfers between facilities, vendors, and creative teams. Colocation in a carrier-dense NYC facility puts your content infrastructure at the center of the creative ecosystem — with the connectivity to move files at the speed creative workflows demand rather than the speed cloud bandwidth budgets allow.
What Carrier-Neutral Colocation Actually Saves Media Companies On Bandwidth
The bandwidth cost comparison between cloud and carrier-neutral colocation is stark. Here is what it looks like for a representative NYC media company.
Scenario — Mid-Size NYC Content Distributor Currently on AWS:
Current AWS Bandwidth Costs:
Monthly data transfer out of AWS: 500 terabytes AWS egress rate: $0.085 per GB Monthly egress fees: $42,500 Annual egress fees: $510,000. Actual savings vary based on workload profile, bandwidth commit, and facility. We run the full analysis for your specific situation at no cost.
Equivalent Carrier-Neutral Colocation Bandwidth:
500 terabytes per month in a carrier-neutral NYC facility Negotiated bandwidth rate with competitive carrier pricing: $3 to $6 per Mbps per month Equivalent monthly bandwidth cost: $8,000 to $15,000 Annual bandwidth spend: $96,000 to $180,000
Annual Savings On Bandwidth Alone:
$330,000 to $414,000
And that is before accounting for compute and storage savings from moving workloads off cloud pricing entirely.
The total infrastructure economics for a media company running significant content workflows on AWS typically show 40 to 60% cost reduction when moving to carrier-neutral colocation — with bandwidth savings alone often justifying the entire move.
Which NYC Facilities Are Right For Media and Entertainment
Media companies need a specific combination of carrier density, internet exchange access, bandwidth pricing, and storage capacity. Here is how the major NYC facilities compare for media clients specifically.
Telehouse — Teleport Campus — Staten Island
Why it is the media facility: Telehouse operates NYIIX — the New York International Internet Exchange. For media companies distributing content directly to audiences peering at NYIIX is the most cost-effective way to reach eyeball networks. Telehouse’s carrier density is exceptional for internet exchange connected workloads. Pricing is among the most competitive in the NYC metro market.
Best for: Content distributors, streaming platforms, CDN nodes, any media company where direct internet peering reduces distribution costs.
The trade-off: Staten Island location. Travel time for on-site visits is longer than Manhattan. For media companies where the internet exchange economics are compelling this trade-off is almost always worth it.
60 Hudson Street — Manhattan
Providers operating in this building: Digital Realty and DataBank.
Why it is exceptional for media: One of the world’s premier carrier hotels — 100+ carriers and networks under one roof. The carrier density and bandwidth pricing achievable at 60 Hudson is unmatched in the Manhattan market. Digital Realty operates the primary interconnection and peering infrastructure. DataBank offers competitive mid-market colocation options within the same building ecosystem.
Best for: Media companies that need maximum carrier diversity and competitive bandwidth pricing with a Manhattan address. We work with both Digital Realty and DataBank within this building and will match you to the right operator based on your specific requirements.
DataBank — 111 8th Avenue Manhattan
Providers operating in this building: DataBank and Equinix NY9.
Why it works for media: Two major providers share this premier Manhattan carrier hotel address — giving clients access to strong carrier density, competitive bandwidth pricing, and the connectivity options of both the DataBank and Equinix ecosystems from the same building.
DataBank at 111 8th Avenue: Competitive mid-market pricing with strong bandwidth negotiating leverage from the carrier mix in the building.
Best for: mid-size media companies that need strong connectivity at a Manhattan address without the premium of the largest carrier hotels.
Equinix NY9 at 111 8th Avenue
Strong carrier density and internet exchange access within the Equinix ecosystem. Direct connections to major CDN providers and content delivery infrastructure.
Best for: media companies already in the Equinix ecosystem or needing connectivity into it for other business reasons.
Metro Colo Advisory Note:
For pure media and content distribution workloads Telehouse is frequently the most compelling option — the NYIIX peering economics are simply the best available in the NYC metro market. For media companies that also need Manhattan presence or connectivity into other ecosystems we typically present Telehouse alongside a Manhattan carrier hotel option and let the bandwidth cost comparison make the case.
Should Your Media Company Be On Cloud or Colo — The Honest Answer
The cloud versus colocation decision for media companies is almost always driven by one number — your monthly data transfer volume. Here is the honest framework.
If your monthly data transfer out of cloud exceeds 50 terabytes:
The bandwidth economics almost certainly favor colocation. At AWS egress rates 50 terabytes costs approximately $4,250 per month in egress fees alone. In a carrier-neutral colocation facility equivalent bandwidth costs $800 to $1,500 per month. The savings justify serious evaluation regardless of your compute and storage situation.
If your monthly data transfer is under 20 terabytes:
Cloud egress fees are significant but may not alone justify the operational complexity of a colocation move. The decision depends more on your compute and storage costs. We run the full analysis and tell you honestly where the inflection point is for your specific situation.
If your workloads involve live streaming or real-time content delivery:
The latency and bandwidth consistency advantages of dedicated infrastructure over cloud — particularly for live production and distribution workflows — go beyond pure cost. Quality of service guarantees available in colocation environments are not replicable in shared cloud infrastructure at any price.
If your content workflows are highly collaborative with external vendors and partners:
Carrier-neutral colocation puts your content infrastructure at the center of the creative ecosystem with the connectivity to move files between facilities and vendors at speeds that collaborative creative work demands. Cloud-based file transfer for large media assets is slow, expensive, and frustrating in ways that colocation directly solves.
The hybrid media architecture:
Most sophisticated media companies end up with a hybrid approach — production, post-production, and distribution infrastructure in carrier-neutral colocation for bandwidth economics and performance reasons, with cloud used for archive storage, analytics, and occasional burst rendering capacity where cloud’s elastic pricing model genuinely makes sense.
What These Conversations Look Like — Media Situations
We Navigate Regularly
Scenario 1
Streaming Platform With Exploding Egress Costs
A 60-person NYC-based streaming platform has grown rapidly over the past two years. Their AWS bill has reached $140,000 per month — of which $65,000 is pure egress fees as their content reaches more viewers. Their CTO has flagged egress costs as the fastest-growing line item in the infrastructure budget. They know this is unsustainable but have never evaluated the alternative.
Our Approach
We run the bandwidth cost comparison showing what 800 terabytes per month of data transfer costs in a carrier-neutral facility versus AWS. We identify Telehouse for the NYIIX peering economics and a Manhattan carrier hotel as an alternative for comparison. We model the full cloud versus colo picture including compute and storage. We present the analysis with a clear recommendation and manage the facility evaluation and negotiation.
Scenario 2
Production Company Building Post-Production Infrastructure
A documentary and commercial production company with 35 full-time staff and a roster of 200 freelancers is building out its first dedicated post-production infrastructure. They need to move large media files between their Manhattan office, their colorist in Brooklyn, their sound facility in Midtown, and their distribution partners. They have been doing this over the public internet and it is increasingly painful.
Our Approach
We identify carrier-neutral colocation as the foundation for a private network connecting all of their facilities and vendors via dedicated circuits. We find a facility that gives them the carrier diversity to connect to every partner they work with. We explain the cross-connect model — direct private connections between their infrastructure and their partners’ infrastructure in the same facility or via dedicated circuits. We manage the facility evaluation and connectivity design.
Scenario 3
Broadcast Operation Evaluating Infrastructure Modernization
A regional broadcast operation with 150 employees is running aging on-premise infrastructure at their Manhattan broadcast facility. Their engineering team knows the infrastructure needs to modernize but has never evaluated external colocation for broadcast workloads.
Our Approach
We assess their specific broadcast infrastructure requirements — redundancy, connectivity, latency, power density. We identify facilities that support broadcast-grade infrastructure including the connectivity to major broadcast networks and distribution platforms. We model the economics of external colocation versus continued on-premise operation. We present options with clear trade-offs and a specific recommendation.
What Our First Conversation Looks Like — The Five Questions That Shape Every Media and Entertainment Companies Recommendation
What is your current monthly data transfer volume and what is it costing you?
The bandwidth number drives the economics more than anything else for media companies. We need the current volume and current cost — including egress fees if you are on cloud — before we can build a meaningful comparison.
What does your content workflow look like — who are you moving files to and from?
Post-production vendors, distribution partners, CDN providers, broadcast networks, streaming platforms, archive facilities. Understanding the full workflow map tells us which carrier and network connections matter most and which facility has the best connectivity to your specific ecosystem.
Do you have live streaming or real-time production requirements?
Live production has different infrastructure requirements than on-demand content workflows. Real-time requirements shape the facility shortlist and the connectivity design differently from archive-heavy or post-production-heavy workflows.
What is your storage footprint and how is it growing?
Media companies accumulate enormous volumes of content. Understanding your storage growth trajectory helps us design infrastructure that scales with your content library without the egress penalty cloud storage creates when you need to access that content.
Are you currently in a contract and what does your current infrastructure cost?
If you are in an existing arrangement we assess whether early exit makes financial sense versus waiting for natural expiration. If you are evaluating from scratch we use your current cost as the baseline for the comparison.
Why NYC Media Companies Use Metro Colo Advisory
Media infrastructure decisions are driven by bandwidth economics that most colocation advisors do not fully understand. The difference between a facility with strong carrier density and internet exchange access and one without is not a technical detail — it is the difference between bandwidth costs that make sense and bandwidth costs that do not.
Metro Colo Advisory understands the media bandwidth economics in the NYC market. We know which facilities give you the best peering options,
which carriers are most competitive for media workloads, and how to structure a bandwidth negotiation that actually moves the number. We have seen the egress bills that media companies are paying on cloud and we know exactly what the alternative looks like.
Our analysis is free. If the numbers make sense we help you make the move. If they do not we tell you that honestly. Our commission comes from the provider you choose — so our only incentive is finding the infrastructure solution that actually fits your business.
Ready To Find Out What Your Bandwidth Should Actually Cost?
Tell us your current data transfer volume and infrastructure setup. We’ll come back within 72 hours with a realistic analysis of what carrier-neutral colocation would cost — and what you would save on bandwidth alone.
For most media companies the bandwidth savings alone justify the conversation. Let us run the numbers for your specific situation — free and with no obligation.
No cost. No obligation. Bandwidth economics that actually make sense for media companies.
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