
For media and entertainment companies, sports leagues, rightsholders, and sports federations, the costs and complexities of distributing valuable, broadcast-quality media libraries online can be prohibitive. Imagen's new Global Distribution Network feature gives sports and media brands the opportunity to manage, preserve, and distribute media content to a global audience via a secure, customizable web platform, delivering a premium performance and enabling new B2B and B2C business models in new territories.
Nick Ashwin
The Problem
In a world where anyone can produce video content with a swipe of a smartphone, new services are popping up every month with new ways to capture, edit, and share media quickly with anyone anywhere. Advances in social- and consumer-focused digital video tend to propagate relatively low-resolution files with short lifespans. Currently, the same easy methods for distribution and access are not available for broadcast-quality content: these large libraries can be made up of files with bitrates of 120-150 Mbps and often have a shelf life stretching out for decades. How do these vast, valuable collections of media files get shared around the world for broadcasters to edit and add into their TV schedules on the same day, for example?
The most famous video-streaming services - Netflix, HBO Go, etc. - are able to use content-distribution networks, which are ideal for streaming live or on-demand video to consumers worldwide. However, for content owners with large libraries of high-resolution files, hosting these files on the edge of a CDN would be sub-economic and not viable. To get around this, compromises are often made: for example, offering a reduced library, low-res proxies, or mezzanine files. This frequently results in complex workarounds, slow delivery, and, most crucially, a poor experience for high-importance clients.
Sports Broadcast and Improved Media Distribution
As American sports brands look to expand their viewership to new generations of football fans in new territories, the demand for rich sports content is set to grow.
The NFL, for example, has played at least one regular-season game in London for the past 10 seasons. This year, it has increased that number to three, with each game played in front of a sell-out stadium. Rightsholders realize that there's an appetite for coverage of leagues outside native borders. Soccer's La Liga, Bundesliga, Serie A, and the Premier League attract huge audiences worldwide, something the larger U.S. sports brands would surely like to replicate.
With sports-news networks like Golf Channel and NFL Network creating and editing on a 24/7 basis, demand for content has never been greater. Broadcasters, in particular, often need access to high-res content quickly to react to live events and news and build supporting content around live broadcasts and review shows.
Although news travels fast in the sports world, large volumes of broadcast-quality files do not. When files are born digital, supplying data from a server room in the host country can mean a poor experience for customers in faraway countries. Downloading those 120-MBps broadcast masters can seem to take forever, especially when production teams are reacting to live events or have a show to deliver that day. That's assuming the customer can find the content needed: storage servers sitting in production suites or data centers are generally locked down, and search interfaces (internal and external) are virtually nonexistent.
Attempting to host a high-resolution library across CDNs would be unfeasible; CDNs are economically viable only when relatively small numbers of files are serving a large number of users. That's great for Netflix, not so much for companies dealing with exclusive content and a relatively small number of high-paying clients.
Public-Cloud Infrastructure
At Imagen, we've launched our Global Distribution Network (GDN) feature: an example of how public-cloud infrastructure can be used by content owners to reach a global audience. Through the network and over the cloud, our clients are able to take high-value content closer to remote audiences by automatically replicating large-volume media libraries to any number of strategically positioned points of presence (PoPs) around the globe.
With hundreds of access points available worldwide, content owners can deliver broadcast-quality media to key customers from the closest PoP in the fastest time possible, offering a more localized service with improved speeds and performance. Through the GDN technology, Imagen allows content owners to fully realize the commercial value of their content and expand their markets overseas, delivering a vast library of legacy or near-live content to a new audience in new territories and providing never-seen-before footage to a worldwide fan base.
Premium-Performance Media Platform
With Imagen's video-management solution, it's not just about speed of delivery. Rather, it's a premium performance for premium content, allowing global customers to search entire video libraries in seconds, play back proxies, create edits, run workflows, and download high-resolution content - all through a branded, scalable, and highly secure web platform.
And, if you do want to engage with a wider B2C audience, your site can be configured to distinguish among user profiles, providing a subscription-based VOD platform for consumers while catering to your production and broadcast partner's high-resolution needs.
Used by some of the biggest sports and media companies in the world, Imagen is hugely scalable and allows any-size business - from small and medium-size entities to global sports brands - to enjoy the same experience and opportunities using Imagen's flexible architecture. No large capital expenditure is required, and pricing is based on
Most recent headlines
13/03/2025
WASHINGTON FCC Chairman Brendan Carr announced that the agency has launched a massive, new deregulatory initiative that could potentially subject virtually all ...
13/03/2025
SUNNYVALE, Calif. SDVI has announced that it has integrated its Rally media supply chain management platform with the Spectra Vail multi-cloud data management s...
13/03/2025
ATLANTA Gray Media has announced that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has granted a waiver of its local ownership rules to permit Gray Media to acqu...
13/03/2025
TV Tech: What do you anticipate will be the most significant technology trends at the 2025 NAB Show?...
13/03/2025
Watch Student Naomi Soleils Folk Pop Performance on The Voice The songwriting major sang Stars by Grace Potter and the Nocturnals during the blind auditions.
...
12/03/2025
O Spotify acaba de lan ar o relat rio Loud & Clear deste ano, uma vis o transpar...
12/03/2025
Spotify acaba de presentar el informe Loud & Clear de este a o, una mirada trans...
12/03/2025
Ramadan, a period of profound spiritual significance for Muslims worldwide, is a time for fasting, prayer, reflection, and community. Enrich your experience thi...
12/03/2025
Spotify has just unveiled this year's Loud & Clear report, a transparent loo...
12/03/2025
More than 70% of FAST programming has been produced since 2010, according to new Gracenote report
NEW YORK March 12, 2025 Gracenote, the content data busin...
12/03/2025
GEONA, Nev. Independent digital and linear advertising rep firm Viamedia will adopt cloud-based ShowSeeker Pilot as its primary ad campaign and order management...
12/03/2025
BRUSSELS Mediagenix has announced that Wael Yasin has joined the company as sales director Central Europe....
12/03/2025
LONDON A new study highlights opportunities for shoppable TV and the massive impact online consumer spending is having on the economy, with Omdia predicting tha...
12/03/2025
CUPERTINO, Calif. Interra Systems has announced that Comcast Technology Solutions has integrated recent updates to BATON Version 9 into its operations....
12/03/2025
Nevion announces new 400G addition to its eMerge SDN media fabric offering
Brie Clayton March 12, 2025
0 Comments
High-capacity switch enhances existi...
12/03/2025
DaVinci Resolve Studio Delivers Cinematic Sound for Adam Bol
Brie Clayton March 12, 2025
0 Comments
Feature film relies on DaVinci Resolve Studio for ...
12/03/2025
SVT Leverages Ateliere Live to Pioneer 100% Software-Defined Production at Rally...
12/03/2025
Berklee Awards Fenway Neighborhood Improvement Grant to Four Organizations A total of $17,000 will be distributed among the Boston-based nonprofits.
By
Madd...
12/03/2025
TVBEuropes Jenny Priestley sits down with new SMPTE president Richard Welsh to discuss his aims for the organisation going forward, its efforts to attract a you...
12/03/2025
The new process has significantly enhanced operational efficiencies, with automation freeing up creators to concentrate on higher value tasks
By Matthew Corrig...
12/03/2025
Jellyfish Pictures, which has offices in London and Sheffield, said it has been battling hard in the face of strong headwinds over the last 12 months
By Jenny ...
12/03/2025
Visit Booth #W2213 to Experience the Latest in AI-Driven Content Discovery and Workflow Automation
Bitcentral, a leader in media workflow solutions, is set to ...
12/03/2025
CHICAGO Jeff Lilly has been named WGN-TV director of technology effective March 17, 2025, according to Ric Harris, WGN-TV vice president and general manager....
12/03/2025
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. A new study from LG Ad Solutions indicates that consumers want more features that would allow them to shop for products on the connected T...
12/03/2025
BOTHELL, Wash. The Alliance for IP Media Solutions (AIMS), Advanced Media Workflow Association (AMWA) and the Video Services Forum (VSF) will once again present...
12/03/2025
PHILADELPHIA Comcast announced that it has upgraded Xfinity Internet speeds for more than 20 million customers for no additional cost....
12/03/2025
Create with Maxon: Cinema 4D Fundamentals Workshop - March 12-14
Brie Clayton March 11, 2025
0 Comments
Makin' Waffles with Elly Wade
During Marc...
12/03/2025
Ottawa, Canada - March 12, 2025 - Ross Video is pleased to announce the appointment of Aaron Tunnell as Business Development Director, Cloud Solutions, reinforc...
12/03/2025
12 Mar 2025
VEON to release 4Q 2024 trading update on 20 March 2025 Dubai, 12 March 2025 - VEON Ltd. (NASDAQ: VEON), a global digital operator, today confirms ...
12/03/2025
Getting set for the Winter Olympics: Inside SVT's ongoing software-based pro...
12/03/2025
THE PLAYERS Championship 2025: AI Commentary, Shared-Reality Viewing at COSM, La...
12/03/2025
Seamless SMPTE 2110: A Discussion on Making the Move to IP Less Painful Leaders from Netflix, Monumental Sports & Entertainment, LinkedI, and Megapixel address ...
12/03/2025
Opening Doors of Perception: Meta's Ajit Ninan on Rethinking AR/MR Perceptua...
12/03/2025
With the 2025 Formula 1 season set to begin in Melbourne on March 16, Sky Sports is gearing up to deliver its most comprehensive F1 coverage yet. Following a th...
12/03/2025
Unicanal and Trece TV revolutionize Digital TV in Paraguay with Rohde & Schwarz ...
12/03/2025
Honoring Service, Celebrating Sport: Rohde & Schwarz UK Sponsors NavyFit Rugby D...
12/03/2025
New HVS-Q12 Represents a Quantum Leap in Switcher Design...
12/03/2025
Telespazio and ABS Expand Partnership to Deliver Tailored C-Band Connectivity So...
12/03/2025
ABC conducts independent audits across the TAG programs. In the March 2025 TAG s...
12/03/2025
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Moonlight: ESA program to create a satellite con...
12/03/2025
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
In 2025, Thales ranks among the top 0.01% of the...
12/03/2025
Consumer show back following hugely successful first series
10 March 2025 Following a hugely successful first series, The Complaints Bureau returns to RT ...
11/03/2025
By Lucy Spicer
One of the most exciting things about the Sundance Film Festival...
11/03/2025
Salsa is making a comeback, captivating new listeners with its infectious energy...
11/03/2025
For many people, music can serve as a reflection of their roots and upbringing. ...
11/03/2025
The solution delivers reliable, scalable and secure connectivity for critical pu...
11/03/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced that Weigel Broadcasting has deployed Harmonics VOS Media Software, which offers playout-to-delivery capabilities, inclu...
11/03/2025
NEW BERN, N.C. Wheatstone will introduce a Linux audio driver for its WheatNet IP audio network during the 2025 NAB Show, April 5-9, at the Las Vegas Convention...
11/03/2025
NEW YORK A new study finds that as TV viewership for women's sports surged by 131% in 2024, the programming also saw a 56% year-over-year increase in ad im...
11/03/2025
Powerful switcher for news studio
FOR-A, a cutting-edge video broadcast technology company backed by more than 50 years experience, has installed its HVS-1200 ...