Two Video Wins For Level 3

Nothing burns bandwidth like video, and so when Level 3 Communications (NYSE:LVLT, news, filings) announced two television-related contracts it certainly can’t be a bad thing.  The first is for bandwidth at Information Television Network (ITV) down in Florida, which produces ‘health and wellness broadcast programming’ which must be on the channels I usually skip over.  ITV will be initially leveraging a fiber build into their studio to support their production needs plus a 20Mbps connection and a T-1 for internet and voice.

But more interesting is the other contract, under which FOX Sports has signed on with Vyvx VenueNet+ services for the 2011 Major League Baseball Season.  FOX has been a longtime customer of Vyvx, and used its VenuNet products for the 2010 NFL season – both regular season and the SuperBowl.  Meanwhile, Level 3 also has a deal with Major League Baseball itself for both bandwidth and streaming.  Now it will be helping with the live video backhaul end as well, including JPEG 2000 compression.  Level 3 no longer breaks out Vyvx revenues individually, but it seems clear that it has been helping the company turn things around over the past year.

With the pending purchase of Global Crossing, Level 3 will add the more European-oriented assets and capabilities of Genesis Networks to their video offerings as well as that fiber in Latin America, which will give them opportunities to win more deals like this overseas.

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Categories: Internet Backbones · Video