Nokia and Sky enhance on-demand video services in the UK

Nokia today announced that its Velocix Content Delivery Network (CDN) has been deployed by Sky, Europe’s leading entertainment company. The alliance enhances Sky’s high-speed video and data services for the company’s millions of UK customers

Sky’s expansion of on-demand premium video content is creating unprecedented growth in customer traffic. This increasingly challenges delivery resources and operational costs across the company’s entertainment and communications service networks. Deployment of the Nokia Velocix CDN allows Sky to temporarily cache content closer to customers in localized cloud data centers to reduce transportation costs and improve the customer experience.

Nokia is providing its Velocix Managed Service expertise – via its CDN Network Operations Center – to assure faster time-to-market for Sky, which will gain fuller control of design, implementation, and operations. In particular, the new solution provides better visibility for traffic demands and flows, ensuring greater predictability of performance and network usage compared to its current CDN service.

The migration of existing Sky services to the Velocix CDN was seamless. Using the advanced features of the Velocix Proxy Language, call flows were easily customized without requiring product development.

Key Facts

• Deployment of Nokia’s Velocix CDN across the Sky UK network satisfies the content demands of  millions of customers subscribing to both broadband and satellite services. Traffic has been live in the network since the end of 2015.
• Sky can modify how a request for content from subscribers is treated depending on a user’s location or device. This opens up a wealth of personalization opportunities to improve the customer experience, or traffic management on the network.
• Nokia solution currently serves the Sky On Demand service content. Sky and Nokia are jointly working to expand the Velocix solution to also support Sky Go and Now TV services for live TV and video on demand.
• The Velocix solution gives Sky greater deployment efficiencies in terms of data center density and footprint, as well as power and connectivity options.

Mohamed Hammady, UK Chief Technology Officer, Sky said: “Nokia is a trusted partner of Sky. Using Nokia’s Velocix CDN, we have greater traffic visibility in the network, allowing us to regain control of managing the network capacity. Deploying the solution deep in the network also ensures we can manage delivery more effectively to improve performance and the customer experience. The introduction of Velocix CDN to support growth of our video on demand services was seamless.”

Paul Larbey, head of Nokia’s IP Video business, adds: “The Sky project represents a milestone for Nokia as it’s the first deployment for a nationwide broadcaster and builds on Nokia’s number one position in the service provider CDN market. It shows that our Velocix CDN – which delivers high-quality programming – aligns with the needs of broadcasters and content providers in addition to those of IPTV and cable operators. Our innovative IP video portfolio will help Sky manage traffic more cost-effectively and efficiently.”