Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) today announced a strategic alliance with upstart U.K. content delivery network (CDN) Velocix, that includes the creation of a new network, to speed delivery of its TV and Internet-driven video offerings.
Verizon and Velocix say they have put commercial and technological arrangements in place to create a new CDN, of sorts, under which the U.K. firm’s technology will be deployed in the Verizon backbone network to reinforce Verizon’s network design.
By contrast, telcos and Web sites have had the options o building and running their own CDN (AT&T) or using the broadening services of Level 3, Limelight Networks, Akamai Technologies and Mirror Image Internet, to name but a few.
Despite the availability and increased functionality of CDN technology and services, delivering an ever-increasing amount of streamed content can create network architecture and infrastructure challenges, according to experts.
All options are being used and much more, so this year we saw a bonanza of live streaming media events that included March Madness, the Beijing Summer Olympics and the presidential conventions and debates.
Couple that with fatter access pipes available to a broader consumer base ─ from cablecos and telcos ─ and the result becomes clear.
Total revenue from CDN services has climbed from $671.3 million in 2006 to a projected $1.31 billion by yearend, according to Tier 1 Research.
Verizon said it was particularly attracted to the Velocix platform as it expands beyond typical CDN features and includes peer-to-peer (P2P) CDN capabilities to meet the needs of the technology as a hugely popular means of distributing content.
The resulting CDN also will be used to distribute content that Verizon contracts for directly with content owners like movie studios, TV networks, video rental sites and entertainment services, and also to distribute content from content owners with which Velocix has agreements of its own.
Verizon did not provide the terms of the strategic alliance, such as duration and value.
As a first step, Verizon has arranged for Velocix to begin delivering Starz Entertainment’s Starz Play broadband entertainment service to Verizon broadband customers. The offering gives consumer expanded options in premium movie viewing by harnessing a broadband delivery model.
In the case of Starz Play, Verizon claims it’s efficiently delivering and offering Starz Entertainment’s movie and video content service to more than 8.5 million Verizon customers.
In May 2008, Verizon and Starz Entertainment executed a comprehensive, multiyear agreement that brought exclusive hit movies from Starz to Verizon’s broadband subscribers and the full array of Starz products to Verizon’s FiOS TV and FiOS Internet and its DSL customers.
