Verizon and Disney have begun trialing Verizon’s open caching platform to improve the experience for Fios internet customers streaming Disney+.
The trial will shift some of the most popular and most requested streaming video content on Disney+ to network edge facilities closer to the customer, which should result in content starting faster while reducing freezing, pausing or playback failures.
Storing content closer to customers can reduce delivery delays since the data travels a shorter distance over the network and through fewer routers and switches. The companies said that during this trial, Fios customers throughout Verizon’s broadband footprint reported faster start times for content, smoother streaming and less buffering while using Disney+.
“The ability for us to scale Disney+ internet distribution and create optimal streaming experiences for subscribers around the content is paramount to our continued success as the flagship streaming service from The Walt Disney Company,” said Joe Inzerillo, executive vice president and chief technology officer at Disney Streaming Services. “As we experience increased demand for Disney+ content, we are encouraged with the success of the OpenCache standards and the growing install base of that platform across global networks like Verizon. These deployments have given us scale while providing valuable distribution diversity enabling us to engage millions of more subscribers with the highest quality streaming.”
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Michael Fay, vice president of media distribution at Disney Streaming Services, said last year that his company’s early work with Verizon on open caching was already achieving performance on par with traditional content delivery network providers.
"They are all within one or two standard deviations for a particular point in time," he said, according to Light Reading. "I know the performance is there…We have non-anecdotal, quantifiable data that shows that, for the most part, you can substitute CDN 'C' for an open cache deployment on Verizon, and our end users are not getting the rebuffering. It's not false advertising. The stuff that's deployed works really well."
Verizon’s open caching platform is based on open specifications developed by the Streaming Video Alliance’s Open Caching Working Group, which was established in 2015. The group—which includes Disney and Verizon along with Qwilt and others—has focused on identifying the critical components of a non-proprietary caching system and establishing basic architectural guidelines for open caching implementation. In late 2020, the Group released new open caching documentation related to metrics, KPIs and content security.
“We’ve had a very productive year developing and introducing new public specifications, one of the Alliance’s top priorities. I want to personally recognize and thank our Working Group members for their commitment to bringing their respective projects full circle,” said Jason Thibeault, executive director at the Streaming Video Alliance. “While this has been a challenging year in many respects, it has also accelerated innovation in the streaming industry and encouraged new breakthroughs on a shorter runway.”
As work with Disney continues, Verizon said it’s also talking with other content providers including news organizations, gaming companies and streaming services about using its open caching technology platform. The company is also developing open caching for customers on its wireless network, which has embraced virtualization and additional server space on the edge of the network over the past few years, making it an ideal network environment for open caching.