nCUBE inks apartment VOD deal

By Susan Rush
From The September 12, 2002 Edition Of CED Broadband Direct

Japan's apartment manager Leopalace 21 Corp. plans to deploy nCUBE Corp.'s video-on-demand servers. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Leopalace 21 will use nCUBE's platform to deliver on-demand content to 100,000 subscribers in apartment buildings in Japan. On-demand content available to subscribers will include Hollywood movies, local movies and programming and Japanese animation programs.

NTT Communications Corp. will provide the broadband IP network infrastructure.

nCUBE's n4x video server provides more than 200,000 hours of unique video storage and supports communities from 5,000 to 500,000 homes. Leopalace 21 manages more than 200,000 apartment homes in 7,000 buildings throughout Japan.

The service will initially launch next month, with a full-scale launch completed by the second half of 2003. Once the VOD service is launched, it will be the first nationwide commercial VOD service offering on an optical fiber network in Asia, according to nCUBE.