Disney And Lumen To Develop Standardised CDN Metadata

With standardised metadata, companies don’t have to separately model and publish metadata within each CDN vendor’s API

Disney and Lumen have established a multi-year partnership to produce standardised configuration metadata for content delivery networks (CDNs). The companies want to create a metadata model with widespread application across the streaming video industry.

Standardised metadata allows content providers to use a common metadata model and a single application programming interface (API) to publish CDN configurations to vendors. That way, companies don’t have to separately model and publish metadata within each CDN vendor’s proprietary API, which can be error-prone and costly for larger companies working with multiple brands.

“Hundreds of millions of subscribers already engage with Disney+, Hulu, ESPN+ and Star+, and as demand increases for our direct-to-consumer platforms, we believe standardisation will be a key driver in maintaining our reputation in delivering a high-quality viewing experience for subscribers at scale,” said Michael Fay, Vice President of Software Engineering, Disney Streaming.

Lumen touts one of the largest low-latency CDNs in the world. The company has integrated video encoding technology to deliver high-speed OTT content to consumers. Disney and Lumen’s efforts could especially benefit OTT providers who work with multiple CDNs. NPAW has developed a similar technology, a CDN load balancer that simplifies the process of selecting CDNs.