Company Leverages One of the World’s Largest and Most Connected Networks to Provide Streaming Services
Company Leverages Cost Advantages to Offer Consistent Pricing across Content Delivery Portfolio
SAN JOSE, Calif., November 6, 2007 - Level 3 Communications’ Content Markets Group today announced it has expanded its global content delivery portfolio to include streaming services. Formerly in beta, Level 3’s streaming service is being launched today on one of the world’s largest and most connected IP networks.
Third party research firms rank Level 3’s network number one in terms of connectivity, based on the Level 3 network having the fewest average hops or connections to any given IP address in the world. When combined with Level 3’s direct Internet connectivity to the largest broadband providers in North America, Level 3 facilitates the shortest route to 75 percent of “eyeballs” in the United States. From a standing start in May of 2007, Level 3 has already deployed 700 Gbps of CDN capacity. Capacity is expected to exceed one terabit per second by the end of the first quarter of 2008, less than one year after launching CDN services. Industry-leading connectivity and significant deployed capacity provide streaming customers with a robust streaming solution that efficiently delivers content worldwide in multiple formats with varied streaming rates.
“Content delivery services are the most critical infrastructure of World Cyber Games’ (WCG’s) global on-line practice, and we are very pleased to procure these important services from Level 3,” said H.S. Kim, chief executive officer and president of World Cyber Games. “Using Level 3’s streaming service, in October we organized and streamed our grand final event and other national operations from Seattle, Wash., to 74 countries and made the grand final available to our 1.5 million global WCG tournament participants.”
Level 3’s streaming services enables content providers to distribute rich media content from a global network of streaming servers. The deployment of these streaming servers enables content providers to reach millions of users worldwide with Level 3’s portfolio of services. Level 3 helps its streaming customers to provide end users with a dependable and refined video experience.
“Content owners such as sports broadcasters, movie studios, television networks and others are delivering more of their digital assets via the Internet, dependable streaming services are of paramount importance,” said Brady Rafuse, president of Level 3’s Content Markets Group. “Level 3 is a major player in this space, our network and content delivery services uniquely position us to meet the challenge of delivering massive amounts of rich media content over the Internet.”
All Leading Formats Supported
Level 3 plans to support all of the leading streaming media formats for live and on-demand viewing including Microsoft Windows MediaTM, video for Adobe FlashTM Player, Real Player TM, QuickTime TM, and the Move TM Media Player.
“We are thrilled to be working with an industry leader like Level 3 to deliver Move Media Services,” said John Edwards, chief executive officer of Move Networks. “Move Media Services build audiences and bind consumers to broadcasters and advertisers like never before. We were attracted to the Level 3 streaming platform because of its cost advantages and ability to continually scale to meet the growing demands that increased adoption of HD streaming places on networks.”
Additionally, as a member of the Microsoft Silverlight TM Partner Initiative, Level 3 is supporting Microsoft Silverlight, a cross-browser, cross-platform plug-in for delivering the next generation of media experiences and rich interactive applications for the Web.
"Our relationship with Level 3 enables Silverlight users to develop engaging video applications with the confidence that Level 3 will deliver their content over a high-performance, scalable and dependable platform," said Sean Alexander, director of Silverlight Media at Microsoft Corp.
Level 3’s strategic cost advantages enable consistent pricing
Since announcing the availability of caching and downloading services in May of this year, Level 3 has been focused on building a new, high-capacity platform that supports competitive features and enhanced performance. The company has been working closely with customers that serve large volumes of digital content online to develop solutions and pricing structures that meet their needs.
Consistent with its previously determined pricing strategy for its caching and downloading services, Level 3 has aligned its prices for streaming services with its prices for high-speed Internet access. The unit price of High-speed Internet access, Caching and Downloading, and Streaming Delivery are the same. There will be additional charges for certain player formats due to their licensing arrangements, except for Windows Media Format, which has no additional charges. Furthermore, there will be no premium charges for bursts or large file sizes for any of the streaming formats – an industry first.
Level 3 plans to complete the full integration of the video management platform it acquired as part of its acquisition of Servecast in the first quarter of 2008.
Level 3’s comprehensive content delivery portfolio provides a full suite of services to its customers. From the acquisition of HD programming and live events on the Vyvx Broadcast Services platform to the streaming of that content in HD to display screens around the world, Level 3 can provide solutions for virtually every element in the HD supply chain. From camera to display, Level 3 enables its customers to distribute and monetize their digital assets. Major television networks, top advertising agencies, 8 of the top 10 most visited Web sites, top movie studios, and many of the biggest social networking sites all trust Level 3 with their business.
About Level 3 Communications
Level 3 Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: LVLT), an international communications company, operates one of the largest Internet backbones in the world, connecting 180 markets in 18 countries. The company serves a broad range of wholesale, enterprise and content customers with a comprehensive suite of services including: Internet Protocol (IP) services, broadband transport and infrastructure services, colocation services, voice and voice over IP services, and content delivery and media distribution services. These services provide the building blocks to enable Level 3’s customers to meet their growing demands for advanced communications solutions. The company’s Web address is www.Level3.com.
"Level 3 Communications,” "Level 3," the red 3D brackets and the Level 3 Communications logo are registered service marks of Level 3 Communications, LLC in the United States and/or other countries. Level 3 services are provided by wholly owned subsidiaries of Level 3 Communications, Inc. Any other service, product or company names recited herein may be trademarks or service marks of their respective owners.
Forward-Looking Statement
Some of the statements made in this press release are forward looking in nature. These statements are based on management’s current expectations or beliefs. These forward looking statements are not a guarantee of performance and are subject to a number of uncertainties and other factors, many of which are outside Level 3’s control, which could cause actual events to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the statements. The most important factors that could prevent Level 3 from achieving its stated goals include, but are not limited to the company’s ability to: successfully integrate acquisitions; increase the volume of traffic on the network; defend intellectual property and proprietary rights; develop new products and services that meet customer demands and generate acceptable margins; successfully complete commercial testing of new technology and information systems to support new products and services; attract and retain qualified management and other personnel; and meet all of the terms and conditions of debt obligations. Additional information concerning these and other important factors can be found within Level 3’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Statements in this press release should be evaluated in light of these important factors. Level 3 is under no obligation to, and expressly disclaims any such obligation to, update or alter its forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.
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