Level 3 Communications today announced a new aspect to its Content Delivery Network that makes it more cost-effective for content owners to distribute a broader array of content, including the so-called “long-tail” niche content that has its own challenges. According to Level 3, the Content Delivery for Extended Libraries (CDXL) service will enable content owners to earn profits on the full range of their content libraries and not just the latest, hottest video property.

The CDXL service combines Level 3’s network capacity with highly scalable storage facilities and some technology and analytics developed by Level 3 that automatically distribute the content in the most cost-effective way by moving it to specific places in the network based on its popularity, according to Ric Poland, director of product marketing for Level 3’s Content Products Group.

“We have added interesting intellectual property and high-powered algorithms,” Poland said. “That includes analytics to move content to the edge by region based on popularity. What [content owners] have been used to is storing [their] data centrally, paying for transit to a Content Delivery Network and then for transit from central to edge, then delivery to the end user. With this system, we know where every piece of content is and what is popular. If a piece of content is not very popular, we deliver it from storage. If it’s sort of popular, we deliver it from a mid-tier location, or if it’s very popular, it’s stored at an edge node.”

This approach enables content providers to reduce the transit charges on highly popular content such as recently released movies but not be forced to disperse all their content to the edge, which would drive up storage costs.

While it is difficult to predict what content might become instantly popular, given today’s YouTube videos, Level 3’s network is able to react quickly to current events or other trends, Poland said. “If there’s a NASCAR crash, and the video of that becomes suddenly popular in the Southeast, then it will be stored at the edge of the network there,” Poland said. “It might not be as popular in the Northwest, so it wouldn’t go there.”

Virtually all content creators have extended libraries, Poland said, whether it’s user-generated content or the extensive video library of Major League Baseball. The issue has been making it cost-effective for content providers to sell the full range of available material at prices that make it attractive to its fan base, Poland said.

“This not only opens up new possibilities with new customers, it enables our customers who had a long-tail library and weren’t able to monetize it to do that now,” Poland said. “MLB knows everyone wants to see today’s games, that’s easy -- the ability to watch games from last year or five years ago. Watching a game that is five years old opens up new possibilities.”

“Libsyn provides a do-it-yourself publishing platform for podcasters and new media producers and makes thousands of podcasts available to the public,” said Dave Mansueto, co-founder of Liberated Syndication, in a statement prepared by Level 3. “Using Level 3's CDN services, Libsyn has significantly improved its online delivery of high-quality audio and video podcasts to millions of loyal fans. We are excited about Level 3's CDXL service, because we believe it will enable us to effectively distribute the podcasts using our services and better serve content that may be targeted toward niche audiences.”