Syncing Offline and Online Edit Approvals Across a Broadcast Series

Offline and online edit approvals on a broadcast series look like two separate problems. They are actually one problem: making sure the right version is approved at the right stage so that nothing gets rebuilt downstream that was already signed off. When offline and online fall out of sync, you pay for it in conform errors, VFX re-deliveries, and finishing house time that nobody budgeted for.

Here is how to keep both stages moving cleanly across a season.

The Root Cause of Offline-Online Approval Mismatches

The mismatches I see most often come from one of three places. First, a change is made to the offline cut after picture lock, without anyone telling the online editor. The conform is done off an old version and the online does not match what was approved. Second, the approval for the offline cut and the approval for the online cut are tracked in different places, so the post supervisor cannot see the full status of an episode in one view. Third, the guest reviewer who approved the offline cut is not the same person who reviews the online, and nobody documented what was approved in the first pass.

All three of these problems have the same root: the approvals are not attached to the versions they belong to. When you fix that, the sync problem mostly fixes itself.

What Offline Approval Should Actually Lock

Picture lock is a specific commitment. The cut is done. No more structural changes. But in practice, "picture lock" gets violated regularly. A producer watches the episode on a screener and sends a note. A network executive wants a scene trimmed. Someone realizes a music cue does not clear. These changes happen, and when they do, the picture lock approval needs to be revisited rather than silently applied to the existing signed-off version.

The way to handle this in practice is to version every change that happens after an offline approval. If the cut was approved as EP05-OFFLINE-V3 and then a trim is made, the new cut is EP05-OFFLINE-V4 and it goes back out for approval. The original approval does not carry forward. This sounds like overhead, but it takes minutes and it prevents the conform disaster that happens when the online editor is working from an approved version that was quietly revised.

With PlayPause, version stacking means every version is preserved. The approval record shows exactly which version was signed off and when. If someone claims the locked version did not have a specific change, you can pull up the version history and verify it in seconds.

• Version every post-lock change as a new offline version
• Send new versions for approval before they go to online
• Online editor checks the approved offline version before starting conform
• Post supervisor verifies offline and online approval status in one dashboard
• Log any discrepancies between offline and online before delivery

Building the Online Approval Step

Online approval is often treated as a QC pass rather than a genuine creative approval step. That framing undersells it. Online editing catches real issues that offline passes over: graphics that did not conform correctly, captions that are wrong, color grade decisions that read differently on a broadcast monitor, audio levels that need adjustment. These are not trivial.

The online approval should go to a defined set of reviewers who are different from the offline reviewers in some cases. The post supervisor and the showrunner are usually the same. But the broadcast compliance team may only review the online, not the offline, because they need to see the finished grade. And if the episode has a specific color grade sign-off requirement, the DP should be in the online review chain, not the offline.

For each episode, the online review link in PlayPause should carry a clear label indicating it is the online and include a reference to which offline version it was conformed from. That cross-reference makes the approval chain legible.

Running the Approval Loop Without Slowing the Online Editor

One of the legitimate complaints about formal approval processes is that they slow the online editor. If the online editor is waiting for sign-off before they can start work, you are burning expensive suite time. The solution is to build the approval step into the workflow without making it a blocker on the edit itself.

Here is how I would structure this. The online editor starts the conform and produces a first-pass online cut. That cut goes into PlayPause as a review link to the post supervisor and showrunner while the online editor continues working on other elements like captions and graphics. The reviewers have a specific review window, typically 12 to 24 hours. If they do not respond within that window, the cut is considered approved. That puts the burden of timeliness on the reviewer, not the editor.

The approval link for the online cut should be a secure expiring link so that screener copies do not circulate beyond the intended reviewers. For broadcast productions with sensitive material, access-controlled review matters.

For more on how to structure the review session when only some stakeholders are present, the post on how to manage notes from a screening room when only some stakeholders were present covers a related challenge.

Syncing Approvals Across Multiple Episodes

On a broadcast series with multiple episodes in post simultaneously, the approval sync problem multiplies. Episode three might be in online while episode four is at picture lock and episode five is in rough cut. Managing approvals across all three in a single view is what separates a post supervisor who controls the schedule from one who is constantly chasing status.

PlayPause lets you organize episodes into a workspace so the post supervisor can see the approval status of every episode at once. Which episodes have an approved offline? Which have an online in review? Which are waiting on a specific reviewer who has not responded? That visibility is what lets you make smart decisions about when to move an episode forward versus when to hold.

For production companies managing multiple projects simultaneously, the post on how production companies scale review workflows across five films in post at once is a useful companion read.

Making the Approval Trail Legible for Delivery

When the broadcast series delivers to the network, the delivery package often includes a record of what was approved and when. Some networks require this. Even when they do not, having a clear approval trail protects the production in the event of a dispute.

With PlayPause, the approval record is built into the workflow. Every sign-off is timestamped and tied to a specific version. If the network comes back after delivery saying the episode contains content that was not approved, you can pull up the exact version they received alongside the approval record showing who signed off and when.

For broadcast post teams looking at the QC side of this, the post on how broadcast editors deliver QC-ready cuts with timestamped note trails goes deeper on the delivery documentation piece.

If your broadcast series is still tracking offline and online approvals in spreadsheets and email, the operational cost is real. PlayPause's flat per-workspace pricing means you can bring the entire post team plus network reviewers onto the same platform without a per-seat charge that makes the economics unworkable. Start free on your next episode and run offline and online approvals in one place.