Telco and technology giant Cable & Wireless has inked a
deal to provide the content delivery infrastructure for the high-profile
MovieLink movie rental service, beating out rival Akamai .
Cable & Wireless, which was been embroiled in
a legal squirmish with Akamai over content delivery technology, said it
would build a customized content delivery infrastructure capable of storing
a large volume of content for MovieLink.
Specifically, MovieLink will be using C&W’s caching servers and storage
devices at multiple locations across the U.S to support capacity
requirements and reach as many broadband customers as possible.
Akamai officials could not be reached Monday to discuss if it was in the
running for the MovieLink deal.
MovieLink, which is backed by
big-name Hollywood firms Warner Brothers, Paramount, Universal Studios, MGM,
and Sony Pictures has already turned to
IBM for managed hosting services, including systems operations and
network management. Armonk, N.Y.-based IBM has also been chosen to lend
technical counsel and deliver computing resources on-demand from its U.S.
data centers to support MovieLink’s operations.
Much like the online subscription-based music services, MovieLink is
hawking on-demand movie rentals to high-speed (broadband) Internet users and
the company said it opted for Cable & Wireless because the service depended
heavily on a reliable infrastructure.
“We have a tremendous amount of content to offer our customers, and we
needed a service provider who could meet our unique storage, caching and
content delivery capabilities,” said MovieLink CEO Jim Ramo. “The
performance and reliability of Cable & Wireless’ content delivery network
allows us to deliver a reliable online movie rental experience that will
keep MovieLink customers coming back again and again.”
The Santa Monica, Calif.-based MovieLink did not play
favorites when it was looking for DRM technology providers. It tabbed
Microsoft’s Windows Media Digital Rights Management
(DRM) for secure access as well as the Windows Media 9 Audio and Video
technology. MovieLink’s DRM software, one of which Microsoft will supply,
will allow a customer to choose the desired viewing format of a movie.
MovieLink also opted for technology from Microsoft rival RealNetworks This article originally appeared in internetnews.com. to provide DRM and RealVideo and RealOne Player services. As
with the Microsoft agreement, RealNetworks will supply one of MovieLink’s
DRM products to allow a customer to choose the desired viewing format of a
film.