Whitepaper from Frost & Sullivan defines benefits of owning and operating a CDN for TV Everywhere (TVE) Services
Six question checklist pinpoints when to seriously consider building a private content delivery network
STOCKHOLM, Sweden – 14 March 2017 – Leading market research and consulting company, Frost & Sullivan has published a whitepaper that explains the various use cases for building a dedicated or private content delivery network (CDN) for delivering video, and the benefits of the same, including improved quality of service (QoS) and measured operational costs. The paper, commissioned by Edgeware, elaborates the various points that a broadcaster must evaluate to decide between commercial CDNs and setting up their private CDNs.
The Frost & Sullivan paper, titled, ‘Building your own CDN for video delivery: why, when, and how’,argues that the transition from linear TV to on-demand consumption on devices, coupled with increase in resolution to 4K and growth in VR, means that traffic will relentlessly increase over time. Resultantly, commercial CDN costs, although they scale with volume, will still increase over time. This is because the cost of using a CDN service is driven by how many subscribers a service has, the amount of content each of them views, and the bitrate of the video streams. While a private CDN needs upfront fixed investment, it can benefit the broadcaster/ video service operator from economies of scale as service take-up increases.
The whitepaper suggests that the option of private CDNs, which has traditionally been considered as relevant only to very large global operators and media companies, is becoming an attractive option for smaller content distributors as well. Compared to the pay-as-you-go alternative of commercial CDNs, private CDNs become cost-competitive at tipping point of 100,000 subscribers located within a close geographical area. Private CDNs can be considered by television broadcasters, Pay TV operators and OTT video distributors for creating optimal TVE experiences.
To help content distributors decide if they should consider building their own CDN, Frost & Sullivan has created a six-point checklist for content companies to work through. These assessments cover scale, reach and quality, and if respondents answer yes to more than two of the six questions, then a private CDN should be seriously considered.
Co-author of the report, Avni Rambhia, Principal Analyst at Frost & Sullivan said: “The unicast nature of on-demand TV-Everywhere strains infrastructure. As OTT consumption grows, operators are aggressively seeking options to optimize use of their existing broadband infrastructure to maximize delivery capacity. While commercial CDN is still optimal for services with globally scattered users, those with dense communities of subscribers can benefit from a private CDN”.
Discussing the whitepaper, Edgeware CEO Joachim Roos commented: “This whitepaper can help a content distributor to make informed decisions on building their infrastructure for video content delivery. Many of our customers have already realized the benefits of building their own CDN. Our TV CDN architecture allows broadcasters and network operators to benefit from low-latency, control over bandwidth and cost-effective scalability. We’ve already built over 100 unique TV CDNs for customers around the world.” Content owners such as TVB, Televisa, KPN, TeliaSonera, Cincinnati Bell and Vodafone are all benefitting from having opted to build their own TV CDN with Edgeware.
About Edgeware
Edgeware provides operators and content owners with the tools to deliver their TV services at huge scale and low cost. Edgeware’s unique technology gives control and insight back to the content provider and delivers TV with an outstanding viewing experience. Edgeware is headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden, with offices worldwide.
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