The synergy between Level 3’s Vyvx business and its content delivery business really seems to be bearing fruit at last, at least if measured by the PR count for major live sporting events. Today, lvlt announced its selection by VERSUS [1] to handle online and mobile content delivery for the 2010 edition of the Tour de France in the US. They will downlink the signal to a US teleport, backhaul it to several drop points around the country, simultaneously encode it into various formats, and then delivered in real time to subscribers of VERSUS’s Tour Tracker service.
The Tour de France begins on Saturday, July 3 and continues for some three weeks. That is, if they can find enough cyclists who haven’t failed a drug test lately – it’s been an ugly stretch for a sport I’ve never personally enjoyed watching. Nevertheless, it does have its fans, to which Level 3 will be feeding live HD coverage. I’ll bet a fair fraction of those fans have iPhones – time to bend AT&T’s network again. As for me, I’ll be watching the World Cup and then perhaps I’ll work up to admitting to being a Mets fan in public once again.
Level 3 also picked up a contract with Chickasaw [2] yesterday. The Oklahoma wholesale carrier will be leveraging Level 3’s high speed IP services over a GigE connection in order to meet rising demand for IP services in the state. Haven’t heard much good coming out of Oklahoma for Level 3 in a while, hopefully this will start a new trend.
6 Comments To "Level 3 to Deliver Tour de France Content Too"
#1 Comment By Andrew Schmitt On July 1, 2010 @ 8:47 am
Hey Rob, all big pro sports have drugs. Its just that cycling has actually tried to eliminate them. That’s why its in the news.
Pretty rare that two of my passions intersect, thanks for the tip.
#2 Comment By Rob Powell On July 1, 2010 @ 8:56 am
True enough I guess, but you have to admit it hasn’t been pretty to watch the process. Going to watch it on your iPhone? 🙂
#3 Comment By No One On July 1, 2010 @ 10:08 am
Maybe we should ask if Level 3 is getting paid for the high exposure events, or trading them for press releases like they did for the Super Bowl Feed..
#4 Comment By Rob Powell On July 1, 2010 @ 10:39 am
They have much to prove when it comes to revenues, certainly.
#5 Comment By David Gross On July 1, 2010 @ 1:31 pm
“admitting to being a Mets fan”
Rob, that’s nothing. Try being a Washington Nationals fan, there are no performance enhancing drugs that can make them better.
#6 Comment By frank On July 3, 2010 @ 10:30 pm
What’s that you said about the Nats?
“Nationals Overcome Mets in the Ninth!”
[3]