Comcast Wholesale to provide full line of streaming services

Media services provider Comcast Wholesale (NASDAQ: CMCSA) is using the IBC show in Amsterdam to announce the launch of a full range of video streaming services.

Comcast Wholesale's Live Linear Streaming service is an end-to-end streaming solution for pay-TV operators, programmers and anybody else launching OTT services. Services include content ingest, encoding and packaging, playback, and delivery via the Comcast content delivery network (CDN) or the client's CDN. Also included is the mpx video management system from Comcast's advertising arm, thePlatform. 

Comcast Wholesale said it can now facilitate everything from a single over-the-top simulcast stream to broad TV Everywhere backend services.

"We've been in the business of linear broadcast for 20 years. Now, we're able to encode multiple streams and package them for any device," Barry Tishgart, VP of Comcast Wholesale, told FierceCable. "You combine that with our delivery capabilities, and a robust set of advanced features, not to mention a support mechanism for a 24-7 carrier-grade model."

Tishgart said early clients for the service include programmers ranging from big cable networks to independent start-ups.

"We've been doing this for ourselves for years for things like the TV Everywhere component of X1," he said. "We have the technology. It's really about doing it for third parties in a compelling way."

Live linear streaming will be managed out of several Comcast Wholesale facilities, including the Comcast "Dry Creek" Media Center in Centennial, Colo., just outside Denver.

Comcast Wholesale enjoys a leadership position in linear production services, serving a robust client roster. Dry Creek, for example, not only provides origination services for NBCUniversal channels, but the Pac-12 Network, as well. But it's getting into a streaming services business that has already become quite competitive. Rivals include Verizon Digital Media Services, Major League Baseball Advanced Media and NeuLion, just to name a few. 

"To do this right, it takes a lot of technology, time and planning," Tishgart said. "We're doing that as Comcast, not some start-up or fly by night operation. That's important."

For more:
- read this Comcast Wholesale press release

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