Tata Wins CDN Deal

LONDON -- Tata Communications, a leading provider of a new world of communications, today announced that India-based NDTV Convergence Ltd has chosen its LiveBroadcast service, a high-quality, flash-based streaming service, to broadcast three national channels in India—two news and one business—over the Internet to a global audience.

The LiveBroadcast service is part of Tata Communications’ suite of Content Delivery Network (CDN) services that are powered by BitGravity’s technology. LiveBroadcast will deliver the resources and scalability to support NDTV’s growing audience and their need for constant and dynamic flow of content, especially during peak times of news traffic.

By leveraging the LiveBroadcast service, NDTV can avoid the challenges and capital outlay of scaling infrastructure to deliver live video over the Internet. Tata Communications’ solution eliminates the need to install equipment on NDTV’s premises, saving on infrastructure costs and allowing for maximum uptime and scalability when channels are added.

To deliver the service, Tata Communications receives live feeds from the satellite and streams the contents on NDTV’s website using the CDN platform. Kawaljit Singh Bedi, CTO of NDTV Convergence said Tata Communications’ LiveBroadcast service offers a more cost-effective way to improve the quality and provide consistency of NDTV’s Internet live broadcasts. “We found a specialized video delivery provider in Tata Communications. We receive superior quality, scale, and multiple delivery options that create new monetizing opportunities for our content,” he said.

Added Kawaljit: “On May 16, 2009, India’s general election results day, NDTV.com served over 1.5 million live video streams. Tata Communications’ LiveBroadcast service handled the increased video requests without a hitch. The service is scalable and robust, and is what we need for handling breaking news stories and the corresponding spikes in traffic that occur several times throughout the year.”

Tata Communications Ltd.