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The battle among rival content delivery networks is escalating with new satellite weapons-and we don't mean the ones being contemplated by the White House. Net-36, PanAmSat Corp.'s satellite-based broadcast distribution network, will provide streaming media content to Hughes Network Systems' DirecPC, the high-speed Internet service for customers of Hughes Electronics' satellite-TV provider DirecTV.
The relationship gives Net-36 access to half of North American broadband households. It distributes streaming video via satellite to edge-of-the-Internet servers and company executives tout it as superior to ground-based delivery systems offered by current industry leaders Akamai Technologies or Digital Island.
Net-36 is installing content delivery network servers in central offices equipped by digital subscriber line (DSL) carriers as well as the cable operators offering high-speed Internet access via cable modems. That allows the signal to bypass 95 percent of the congestion on the Internet, and allows for real-time full-motion viewing, NET-36 says.
"The best way to get around Internet congestion is to fly over it," says Bill Moses, PanAmSat vice president and president of Net-36. "We're serving the video one router hop from you. There's no degradation or slow down of the image."
The business plan appears similar to those of delivery networks such as iBeam Broadcasting Corp., which uses a hybrid fiber optic and satellite network to stream media for businesses and content distributors to edge servers and nodes along the Internet backbone.
PanAmSat currently operates a fleet of 21 geostationary satellites, the world's largest fleet of commercial satellites available for global video and data broadcasting. It currently delivers programming for 300 major media companies to 11,000 cable head-ends.
Net-36 has contracts with Qwest Communications International Inc. and BellSouth Corp. and is in discussions with other ILEC DSL providers. It's also in four cable TV MSOs (multi-system operators).
Moses says the DSL operators have adopted Net-36's streaming media technology more readily than cable operators that still are struggling with how it will impact their business.
A DSL or cable modem customer, for example, can click the Bloomberg Live TV button on the financial information company's web site and choose to receive the signal at 300 kilobits per second, rather than a lower speed. The user then is redirected to Net-36's edge server that's being fed by satellite. The result is a "near DVD-quality experience that's full-screen digital," Moses says.
Moses also is working to convince movie studios and other content providers that streaming their programming to edge servers can enhance their business models. The immediate future for this broadband capability likely will be in leveraging the technology in a much smaller way than full-blown movies over the Internet, Moses says. But it does provide an ideal opportunity for studios like Time Warner Inc.'s Warner Bros. or Paramount to create their own channel on the IP stream with programming like movie trailers, features and red carpet premieres, a la "Entertainment Tonight."
"We're trying to convince the content owners to come and play with the technology," because if they don't, someone else will, Moses says. Because the content providers own the programming, it's reasonable that they should try to re-purpose it in such a way as to drive viewers to their Web site."
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