• Technologies
    • Black Lotus Labs
    • Cloud
    • Edge Compute
    • Collaboration
    • Managed Services
    • Network
    • Security
  • Business Advice
    • Business Continuity & Disaster Recovery
    • Customer Experience
    • Data Driven Business
    • Operational Efficiency
    • Tech Trends
  • Industries
    • Financial Services
    • Healthcare
    • Gaming
    • Manufacturing
    • Media and Entertainment
    • Pharmaceutical
    • Public Sector
    • Retail
    • Technology
  • About Us
    • Leadership Perspectives
    • NewsRoom
  • Technologies
    • Black Lotus Labs
    • Cloud
    • Edge Compute
    • Collaboration
    • Managed Services
    • Network
    • Security
  • Business Advice
    • Business Continuity & Disaster Recovery
    • Customer Experience
    • Data Driven Business
    • Operational Efficiency
    • Tech Trends
  • Industries
    • Financial Services
    • Healthcare
    • Gaming
    • Manufacturing
    • Media and Entertainment
    • Pharmaceutical
    • Public Sector
    • Retail
    • Technology
  • About Us
    • Leadership Perspectives
    • NewsRoom

Hybrid CDN: Redefining the Paradox of Quality and Cost for OTT Businesses

Ricardo Moreira Posted On February 3, 2022
0


0
Shares
  • Share On Facebook
  • Tweet It

Since “over-the-top video” became synonymous with live and on-demand TV, numerous businesses around the world have popped up (and gone under) to bring video to consumers.

Pure-play OTT platforms focus on delivering broad or specialty content to large audiences. Many of the business models—while initially free—now offer all-you-can-watch packages for a low, fixed monthly price.

We’ve made tremendous progress in improving internet connectivity speeds in recent years. Not so long ago, 10 Mbps at home was unheard of, whereas today subscribers to internet services can easily get 100 Mbps or even 1 Gbps in many areas. This will continue as the cost of bandwidth and access declines. OTT providers welcome these improvements to reliably deliver their content across the internet.

However, large telecom operators operate a dual network: one part of their network is managed and can be used for very high-quality IP video delivery, and the other part of the network is unmanaged or “best effort.” These providers typically do not offer original content outside of their managed network, leaving OTT companies to leverage the unmanaged part of the network for their video services.

As the term “best effort” suggests, there’s no guarantee of up-time, performance, or overall reach. Thousands of OTT services are therefore delivering content to a myriad of devices over a public internet connection that they do not manage or control. They make content available and provide a portal. From that point on, it’s fingers crossed.

Consumers in many markets meanwhile have traditionally enjoyed content from cable and/or satellite television, which is reliable, always on and offers solid quality. Many are not aware that to deliver the same level of reliability, content providers go to great lengths to optimize video compression, leverage adaptive bit-rate technologies and turn to content delivery networks. These CDNs aim to deliver content as close to the end user as possible to eliminate latency and packet loss that impact bandwidth throughput and buffering on the last mile.

Content owners pay CDNs either on total bandwidth or consumption, measured in gigabytes per month. Ironically, as the demand for quality from the consumer increases, so does the load on the CDN and so does the bill for the publisher. A consumer watching SD content (let’s assume 3,000 Kbps) for 1.5 hours per day consumes approximately 60 Gigabytes per month. If the same user watches for three hours per day at HD quality, he now consumes 120 Gigabytes per month. If the same user watches it in 4K, consumption multiplies again. So there is a direct correlation between the number of viewers, quality (bitrate) consumed and viewing time.

The downside is that content owners are typically not able to charge more or monetize more for the same content delivered. Sure, you can have a 4K pricing differential, but 4K video is typically consumed at 12-15 Mbps, and it is highly doubtful that the content owner is able to charge 3-4 times the price merely for content offered in 4K instead of HD.

Traditional delivery models increase with growing audiences and higher bitrates.

So paradoxically, the consumers—who are typically price-sensitive—demand high quality video (they’re used to TV image quality), yet the content owner has no incentive for offering higher quality as every increase in consumption (time and/or quality) immediately leads to a higher bill. The issue is exacerbated by the trend towards higher resolutions, binge watching and increased multiscreen viewing. It is a constant evaluation and tradeoff between quality, cost and customer satisfaction.

The internet, in all its glory, capability and tremendous capacity, has traditionally not been a medium that can scale affordably to TV-sized audiences around the world without either having to compromise on picture quality (bitrate) or play-back quality (playback consistency, elimination of buffering and re-buffering). This leaves content providers with quite a conundrum.

Until now?

Our hybrid CDN approach, which combines the Lumen global CDN infrastructure and software-based Mesh Delivery, finally helps break the correlation between viewer behavior and the cost of delivery.

Mesh Delivery offers a fixed price per session or per viewer, decorrelating the cost of delivery from viewer behavior.

While it is not a one-size-fits-all approach, it comes closer to providing a highly reliable distribution platform with a business model that mimics satellite or cable TV infrastructure. Mesh Delivery uses fixed fees per video session or per concurrent viewer, thereby enabling broadcasters to offer higher quality and run a profitable business. By adding Mesh Delivery on top of the Lumen® CDN or another CDN provider, content owners can have the best of two technologies with a reliable and global distribution network and the scale, flexibility, and cost-effectiveness of a mesh network. In fact, it incentivizes them to offer higher quality as they can more effectively control costs while delivering video reliably. And as we well know, an increase in video quality can ultimately lead to more engagement, higher consumption of premium content and overall customer satisfaction. And of course, to improving the bottom line.

Interested in Mesh Delivery? Try it for free on your platform for 30 days*.
Try it now 

* Offer limited to configurations, compatible systems and usage limitations including maximum data volumes set out by Lumen. Offer available for a limited time to qualifying business customers for new service. Service and offer may not be available everywhere. Lumen may change, cancel or substitute offers and services or vary them by service area at its sole discretion, without notice. Offer may not be combined with other offers. Credit approval and deposit may be required. Additional restrictions, terms and conditions may apply.

This content is provided for informational purposes only and may require additional research and substantiation by the end user. In addition, the information is provided “as is” without any warranty or condition of any kind, either express or implied. Use of this information is at the end user’s own risk. Lumen does not warrant that the information will meet the end user’s requirements or that the implementation or usage of this information will result in the desired outcome of the end user. All third-party company and product or service names referenced in this article are for identification purposes only and do not imply endorsement or affiliation with Lumen. This document represents Lumen products and offerings as of the date of issue.

Related posts:

  1. Okko Sport turns to Lumen for live video delivery
  2. New Mesh Delivery release offers easier cross-device integration and smaller footprint on low-end hardware
  3. From online gaming and esports to the metaverse: the challenge of bringing interactive entertainment to billions worldwide
0
Shares
  • Share On Facebook
  • Tweet It


bandwidthCDNhigh quality videohybrid CDNMesh Deliveryover-the-top video


Author

Ricardo Moreira

Ricardo is the EMEA Sales Director for Content & Application Delivery Services at Lumen and has spent most part of his 20 years career helping media players to broadcast their linear or on-demand content offers on different types of media. This eclectic background allowed him to work on the entire media workflow and to understand the challenges related to the different platforms.

Trending Now
A Hybrid Workforce Demands A Modernized WAN Strategy
Callahan Krivanek May 22, 2023
Lumen Operational Advisory: Anatomy of a DNS Water Torture Attack
James Winzenz May 11, 2023
You may also like
Our journey with Flink: automation and deployment tips
November 29, 2022
From online gaming and esports to the metaverse: the challenge of bringing interactive entertainment to billions worldwide
September 20, 2022
Dedicated Internet Access Vs. Broadband: Speed And Security Win The Day
September 15, 2022
How Adaptability is Changing the Rules of Client Relationships
Read Next

How Adaptability is Changing the Rules of Client Relationships

  • Categories

    Adaptive Networking

    Connected Security

    Hybrid Cloud

    Communications and Collaboration

    Edge Computing

    SASE


  • Lumen is guided by our belief that humanity is at its best when technology advances the way we live and work. With 450,000 route fiber miles serving customers in more than 60 countries, we deliver the fastest, most secure platform for applications and data to help businesses, government and communities deliver amazing experiences.

Services not available everywhere. ©2022 Lumen Technologies. All Rights Reserved.
Press enter/return to begin your search