CNN, Netflix and NFL Use Level 3 for Content Delivery

Over the past few days I have been using tools to examine DNS and CNAME records for a lot of the major sites on the web, to see which CDNs are delivering their content. While there have not been a lot of surprises, I did find out that Level 3 (LVLT) is delivering videos for Netflix (NFLX) and the NFL and delivering small objects for CNN.

I have been saying for some time now that Level 3 is getting some good traction with its CDN offering, yet many ask me if that is the case, why hasn't Level 3 announced a lot of these big customers? While the company has announced a few, like the NHL, in many cases customers don't let CDNs use their name for press or marketing outreach. This is quite common amongst all CDN customers and not unique to Level 3.

But by using tools that examine DNS and CNAME records, it's not too hard to figure out which CDNs are delivering the content. That's exactly what I found out when I examined where content from Netflix and CNN is coming from. While it was always clear that Limelight (LLNW) delivers the vast majority of Netflix's content, Level 3 is also delivering some of its videos and Netflix's business is not exclusive to Limelight as I originally thought. And while Akamai (AKAM) is still delivering all of the videos that I saw coming from CNN.com, many of the small objects on CNN.com are being delivered by Level 3's caching network.

I've also learned that Level 3 is delivering the new NFL video on-demand service, "Game Rewind", which is really no surprise being that it is using Move Networks technology. While many may not know the connection there, Level 3 invested $6 million into Move Networks earlier in the year and as a result, gets a lot of Move's business. In addition to Game Rewind videos, Level 3 is also delivering the live stream for the NFL's Game Pass HD service; a subscription based offering that is only available to users outside the U.S. and Canada.

To gather most of the details, I used Fiddler, which runs as a “proxy” between your web browser and the network and listens to Port 80 (HTTP) or 443 (SSL). There are a bunch of other tools out there as well and if anyone knows of a Mac based tool, I'd love to know what it is.

Disclosure: None

Comments

[Andi Parker:]

Hi Dan, Charles runs on the mac - www.charlesproxy.com/i...

2008 Dec 15 06:06 AM

[mark swarbrick:]

if you want to delve deeper I use wireshark which has an excellent osx port.

2008 Dec 16 05:46 AM

[Neal Goldman:]

This is a great method of getting unbiased CDN information and most of the CDNs have used this same methodology to do competitive mining for years. They also mine Squid logs. The data is great at a high level, but it can be misleading. The biggest thing it misses is the level of traffic flowing through the channel. I'd be interested in more data on Move's deals and how much they're impacting any CDN deals.

2008 Dec 17 10:59 AM

[just_me:]

try the network tool from firebug, it offers a quick view of all objects requested on a website including latency, size and server directly in a browser window

https://addons.mozilla...

2008 Dec 18 05:47 PM