StreamGuys, Inc. Delivers ABS-CBN Broadcast TV From the Philippines Globally Through IPTV and Internet Distribution
StreamGuys, Inc., a streaming media and content delivery provider based in northern California, is now handling content delivery for ABS-CBN’s IPTV service in Canada, Europe, Japan and South Korea. ABS-CBN Broadcasting is the largest integrated media and entertainment corporation in the Philippines, with 35 television stations, 19 owned-and operated AM and FM radio stations, and 10 affiliated radio stations throughout the Philippines. The broadcaster has been using StreamGuys for content delivery for four years, mainly for on-demand streaming and downloads of ABS-CBN programming over the public internet through its pioneering service, TFCnow!
According to Enrique Olives, Director of Business Development for ABS-CBN Global, there are approximately 8 million Filipinos living abroad. To ensure global delivery of its programming, ABS-CBN has employed the internet to penetrate markets where satellite and cable delivery is cost-prohibitive or unavailable. StreamGuys recently won the IPTV business after four years of providing cost-efficient streaming broadcasts and backend server infrastructure management for the internet streaming and download service at now.abs-cbn.com.
“There is a huge market for ABS-CBN programming outside of the Philippines, and it’s important to make our content available on as many platforms as possible,” said Olives. “Content delivery networks like StreamGuys are ideal for IP-based broadcast distribution because you are essentially leveraging on their relationships with ISPs around the world instead of just purchasing raw bandwidth. This relationship allows ABS-CBN to focus on its core competency of producing content instead of managing the network.”
StreamGuys delivers ABS-CBN programming as MPEG-4 standard-definition video for IPTV and Windows Media for internet streaming and download services. For the growing IPTV service, StreamGuys built out a cluster of servers in the United States, Japan, and the Netherlands to ensure plenty of network capacity. StreamGuys designed the IPTV server infrastructure to communicate directly with IP addressable consumer set-top boxes, allowing consumers to view content immediately on demand.
“StreamGuys has proven valuable as a CDN that adjusts to our changing requirements as we scale our network,” said Eugene Paden, Head of IT Operations for ABS-CBN Global. “They clearly understand the different quality requirements for watching content on TV as opposed to a computer, and manage the network to maintain those various requirements. The network management has been critical as we grow our customer base, and the positive aspects of the scalability vs. cost ratio become increasingly evident as we boost network capacity.”
Olives added that StreamGuys has always offered very competitive pricing as a content delivery network. “The flexible pricing they offer has always been attractive from a business point of view,” he said. “The 24/7 network management is essentially built-in to the overall price, which is nice for both our bottom line and the engineering side. We can go to sleep at night knowing they will take care of things if there is a connectivity issue into a specific country or another problem with the greater network.”
“The rise of the internet and IPTV delivery platform for distributing high-quality broadcast content makes it possible for broadcasters to reach almost every corner of the globe. The relationships between broadcasters and content delivery networks have grown stronger as IPTV network infrastructure management becomes more complex,” said Jonathan Speaker, COO of StreamGuys, Inc. “We are proud to assist ABS-CBN for reliable and cost-effective delivery of its broadcast content worldwide, allowing them to focus on producing content.”