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Broadcaster ITV has announced that they’ve selected MainStreaming’s edge video delivery network to help power their ITVX streaming platform and app, which is mostly said to be down to its ability to integrate deeply within broadband and mobile networks, strengthened by its recent strategic partnership with telecoms giant BT (EE).
The change will see ITV add MainStreaming to its multi-CDN (Content Delivery Network) strategy, which they hope will deliver a more controllable approach to video delivery that enables “greater visibility, optimisation and performance management at scale“.
The new platform will thus support the delivery of ITVX’s core catalogue, including flagship programmes, news and live content, while also leveraging its distributed Edge architecture to deliver high Quality of Experience (QoE) while optimising total cost of ownership (TCO).
ITV also noted that BT customers, both via fixed broadband and EE’s mobile network, are said to make up a significant share of ITV’s audience. This is relevant because MainStreaming and BT last year agreed a key partnership, which supports BT’s adoption of MAUD (Multicast-Assisted Unicast Delivery) technology for live-streaming (here).
Mark Ison, Director of Engineering at ITV, said:
“ITVX is a strategic platform for ITV, and our delivery architecture needs to be ready not just for today, but for where streaming will be in the next ten years. MainStreaming’s video-first, capacity-based approach helps us enhance our platform as our expected demand evolves, and its proven ISP partnerships – including BT – give us confidence we can address quality, scalability and efficiency for a significant portion of our audience, while continuing to build on our already world-class streaming platform.”
The collaboration is said to reflect a shared commitment to continuously optimise streaming performance, which is certainly something that ITVX would benefit from.