Leading digital satellite television service provider DIRECTV Inc. Wednesday
contracted with fiber giant Global Crossing Ltd. for an OC-3 connection to
provide broadband connectivity between its broadcast centers in Los Angeles
and Castle Rock, Colo.
The deal portends a greater role for Global Crossing in the media and
entertainment sector, a market it is vigorously courting as a prime buyer of
services on its extensive fiber optic network.
DIRECTV, a unit of Hughes Electronics Corp. which in turn is a unit of
General Motors Corp., will use the connection to transmit data, support a
variety of rich media real-time applications, and enable high-capacity,
highly scalable video transmission between the broadcast centers.
Global Crossing said the deal is a first step toward making DIRECTV an
anchor tenant of the Global Crossing Media & Entertainment global extranet.
“We are very pleased to be providing broadband connectivity to the
recognized national leader in direct broadcast satellite television,” said
Donna Reeves, President, Global Crossing Media & Entertainment Markets.
“Addressing the demand for bandwidth is only one of the many ways we intend
to serve the media and entertainment industry. The Global Crossing Media &
Entertainment extranet will also enable this vital community of interest to
connect, communicate and collaborate on a global basis.”
The company views its Media & Entertainment Markets extranet as the world’s
most advanced communications platform dedicated to the media and
entertainment industries. Global Crossing plans to complete the development
of the extranet — designed to optimize the latest applications for film
production, television broadcast, and digital asset management — in 2001.
“The extranet will connect geographically dispersed media facilities via the
broadband exchange of TV-quality video, CD-quality audio, live event
broadcasting, feature films and commercial production and on-demand
applications,” the company said.