LEVEL 3 CDN Services to Support Online Video Streaming for MLB.com

Level 3 Communications, Inc. announced it has been selected by MLB.com, the official website of Major League Baseball, to augment content delivery network (CDN) services in support of its live and on-demand online streaming.

With the addition of these services, Level 3 is supporting the delivery of MLB.com’s video streaming from creation to consumption using Level 3’s highly scalable CDN platform combined with the company’s Vyvx video broadcast backhaul services.

“Our relationship with MLB.com is a perfect example of the benefits of Level 3’s creation to consumption model,” said Mark Taylor, vice president of Content and Media at Level 3. “We can provide the CDN services they need, but that’s just one piece of the puzzle. We also provide a full suite of customized solutions – from video backhaul to HSIP to colocation to storage – in order to meet more of their connectivity needs from a single provider. As a result, we’re better able to optimize the different delivery workflows along the way, facilitating better outcomes for MLB.com and its business partners, and a better online viewing experience for baseball fans.”

Level 3 is currently augmenting CDN services for live and on-demand online streaming to MLB.TV. The subscription-based video service is one of the largest subscription video offerings on the Internet. In February, MLB.com reported that since its inception, MLB.TV had served more than one billion live video streams, a quarter of which were delivered in 2010. Level 3’s network and CDN platform are designed to easily scale to meet demand like this – from flash crowds to peak loads.

“In choosing Level 3 for one of our CDN services, we’ve been able to achieve optimal CDN redundancy and performance diversity, enabling us to provide a higher quality and more reliable online experience for baseball fans,” said Joe Choti, chief technology officer for MLB.com.

In June 2010, Level 3 announced it had been selected by MLB.com to provide high-speed IP (HSIP) and colocation to support MLB.com’s network, media archive, as well as live and on-demand streaming capabilities. Level 3’s relationship had previously included Vyvx video backhaul services for live-game streams.