Fred Rogers Productions

Originally relying on a legacy, on-premise DAM system, Fred Rogers Productions encountered major roadblocks: slow access, inconsistent metadata, poor search functionality, and limited usability. Team members needed to be onsite to access files, and simple requests—like finding a specific clip or sweater color—could take hours or simply go unfulfilled.  

Their vendor platform was acquired and discontinued, worsening user trust and highlighting the urgent need for a scalable, video-focused DAM solution. 

“It was beyond frustrating, the system constantly broke, and people didn’t trust it. It was made for admins, not end users.” 

Fred Rogers Productions needed more than just a place to store assets—they needed a system that could keep pace with their legacy and scale with their future. With thousands of hours of video and decades of materials in various formats, simply locating the right file—whether it was an episode, image, or song—was often a time-consuming process. 

With MediaValet, they centralized their entire media library in the cloud, allowing for fast, secure access from anywhere in the world. Every department now leverages the DAM in unique ways: 

To streamline management, each active series now has a designated DAM Champion—a team member responsible for uploading new assets and applying metadata. These champions collaborate with the DAM administrator to ensure assets are properly categorized, searchable, and ready to use across the organization. This decentralized yet coordinated approach ensures that no institutional knowledge is lost and every piece of content is maximized for reuse. 

What began as a project to preserve archival content has evolved into a company-wide platform powering creativity, efficiency, and connection to Fred Rogers’ enduring legacy. 

Fred Rogers Productions selected MediaValet for its ability to scale with their video-first needs, and the features that stood out most have become core to their daily workflows across departments: 

Audio/Video Intelligence (AVI): 
AVI instantly transcribes dialogue, identifies people and objects, and auto-tags video content with time-stamped metadata. This allows users to search for specific clips—like “Mr. Rogers in a purple sweater in front of the castle”—and locate results within seconds.  

Video asset management capabilities also reduce reliance on manual tagging and have made a noticeable impact in both speed and accuracy for discovery. 

The voice transcription and captioning generates searchable transcripts and subtitles across historic and current content, even for episodes with no prior closed captioning. This is particularly valuable for accessibility and search, helping staff locate exact moments by word or phrase—including lyrics from iconic songs. 

Video Trimming: 
Staff can create video clips directly in the DAM without exporting into third-party editing tools. This has been a major productivity boost for creative teams, especially in social media and production. 

Portals: 
Used across departments to share curated, always-updated collections with external collaborators, writers, researchers, and licensing partners. These microsites automatically update as new assets are added to the DAM, removing the need for manual uploads and reducing the margin for error. 

AI-Powered Search and Filtering: 
The robust filtering options and keyword tagging—both automated and manual—enable staff to locate content based on themes, visuals, characters, phrases, or even sweater colors. Unlike their previous DAM, MediaValet’s Smart Search understands context and returns relevant results, not just keyword matches. 

The team can even search scanned images, graphics, and PDFs—such as cast lists—for specific text. This is vital for tasks like royalty payments, where quick access to episode and actor data is needed. 

Unlimited Users & Configurable Access: 
With over 85% of staff using the DAM regularly, open access combined with custom permissions ensures everyone—from licensing to fundraising—can safely find and use the content they need. 

Fred Rogers Productions’ DAM implementation with MediaValet has resulted in a complete cultural and operational transformation. 

On top of their ongoing success with the  MediaValet platform, the team emphasized the value of responsive, hands-on support from MediaValet, making adoption easier and innovation more attainable.

“It’s good to know someone has your back,” noted Jack Rowley. 

“What once would’ve taken hours—or wouldn’t have been possible at all—can now be done in seconds.” 

“Every facet of our business takes inspiration from our past. Giving staff access to our full history—and control over what gets added or distributed—is an absolute blessing.” 

“It’s not just a place where we keep things—it’s where we distribute them. That’s the real charm of a DAM.” 

The move to MediaValet has ensured that Fred Rogers’ legacy is not only preserved but positioned for continued growth and relevance across digital channels and future generations. 

Interested in learning more about how a MediaValet DAM could transform your organization? Reach out to one of our DAM experts today!