A Rising Tide Lifts All Boats

As the popularized JFK phrase in our title expresses, when there is overall improvement or progress in a situation, everyone involved will benefit. At the heart of TPN is a collective mission to keep content secure and a commitment to flexibility, transparency, value, community, and forward momentum for all.

Content’s intricate journey from script to screen is a testament to the hard work and expertise of countless individuals and companies that play a part in our industry. Along with the rapid growth of content development and distribution comes the need for increased security preparedness and a dedicated industry program that continues to evolve.

Looking Back

It’s been almost a year since we re-launched the TPN program, allowing us to reflect on the progress we’ve made, both as an initiative and as an industry at large. With the content creation and distribution industry changing so rapidly, it was clear to us that TPN 2.0 should be designed in a way that would evolve with the industry and technology changes.

Our work is dedicated to lifting up the industry at large, and the progress we’ve made is intended to benefit all participants. This past year, we became more inclusive by offering affordable membership opportunities for all service and software providers within the industry, regardless of size and scope. We also participated in many unique experiences and meaningful relationship-building with our members as together we navigated content security vulnerabilities. TPN is grateful to our membership base and industry contributors who have been instrumental in providing constructive feedback. They’ve helped us develop our program into the driving force for content security preparedness that it is today.

Further progress we’ve made over the year includes the addition of the TPN+ Global Pass, which provides an efficient approach to completing security status questionnaires for members with five or more service sites or software applications. The release of version 5.2 of the MPA Best Practices continues to provide a critical framework and set of recommendations to help companies of all sizes across the entire media chain further manage their security vulnerabilities. As part of our latest MPA BP release, we’ve included the crucial requirement for software hardening guidelines, which are freely available in TPN+ to all Companies, regardless of whether they are a TPN member. We’ve incorporated various automated scoping measures within the TPN assessments and expanded the TPN+ platform in ways that provide our members with an enhanced user experience and a streamlined assessment process of the services they provide. These demonstrations of flexibility and community value tie closely into our mission of keeping content secure.

With almost 900 members across 60+ countries, many share our mission and values. A core focus at TPN has always been about raising standards through progress. This leads us to ask, What’s next? How do we continue to evolve our content security initiatives and community?

Looking Forward

Who doesn’t love surveys and community forums? Especially ones where the outcome includes action—something to which we’re dedicated. As we step into 2024, our members will have the opportunity to participate in community forums and surveys, providing an environment of open and candid discussion around content security and ways TPN can adapt, accommodate, and improve. We understand the importance of communication, so we will be sending quarterly release updates for our program and the TPN+ platform, starting this quarter.

We continue to work closely with Content Owners to reduce duplicate efforts and enhance the ways they access TPN+ information about the Service Providers with whom they independently choose to work. This type of transparency has always been a cornerstone of TPN and provides our Content Owner members with a global and centralized “trusted partner” directory of service providers.

It’s exciting to see how global our membership base is, and this presents an opportunity for us to offer regional support. We’re introducing TPN Ambassadors in the EMEA, APAC, and LATAM regions, who will provide first-line support and create communication channels that are open, constructive, and regionally focused. These TPN consultants have longstanding experience and knowledge of our industry and will be available locally for prospective TPN members who may have questions or need information about the program and membership.

Speaking of roles, our TPN assessors are a vital part of our community. In 2024, we have further defined their roles to include consulting, advising, remediation planning, and testing, depending on their TPN assessment responsibilities; more to come in our quarterly program update.

With TPN membership levels at a larger scale than ever before, our entire industry is experiencing forward momentum for our collective mission to keep content secure. The TPN+ platform provides us with direct insight into the state of content security in our industry—at a scale we have never experienced before.

This year, we will share our first TPN Annual Report using anonymized, aggregated data to pinpoint areas of opportunity related to security preparedness by region, service, and membership level. The data analysis, combined with TPN member feedback, will also inform—and help drive—our MPA Content Security Best Practices updates. This data holds immense value, offering us key insights to ensure that we are keeping pace with industry developments.

Many of our global members may operate without dedicated security resources, so we’re focused on developing education and training resources in the second half of 2024. Our goal is to help companies focus on content security and create a culture where it is understood that security is a critical part of the supply chain and everyone’s responsibility.

The phrase “a rising tide lifts all boats” captures the idea that as we navigate the waters of change and development, the positive impact of all our content security initiatives is not confined to specific individuals or groups but extends to the entire community and industry.
As we evolve with the ebbs and flows of our dynamic industry, we look forward to driving increased security awareness, preparedness, and capabilities to secure content through its entire lifecycle, ensuring that all members—and our industry—reap the benefits.