Reeltime IPTV content available via Pipe Networks

Stuart Corner
Tuesday, 14 March 2006 13:19

IT Industry - Strategy

Reeltime has made its 'white label' IPTV services easily accessible to the 80 ISPs that use Pipe Networks' peering points who have between them some two million end user customers.

Reeltime will provide a direct feed of its movie, TV series and library content into Pipe's network. It claims that this will give connected ISPs "dedicated, faster access to Reeltime's systems and video content servers and automatic direct connection to the Reeltime service.

The facility will also reduce ISP resellers' costs of delivery: generally they pay the larger T1 ISPs for data delivered to their networks. Pipe Networks charges a flat fee of $1000 per month, regardless of bandwidth for interconnection with any other ISPs using its peering points.

To date Reeltime's only announced reseller is Adam Internet, but services have yet to be launched.

Reeltime's IPTV service is is not a real-time servics: the top content of its choosing is downloaded to customers' set to boxes at off-peak time and they can download other content of their choice. Reseller ISPs do not need any additional infrastructure to offer the service: content is delivered their nodes via the Internet backbone.

Reeltime managing director, John Karantzis, said: "The agreement with Pipe directly compliments Reeltime's content push download model, which does not rely upon bandwidth as does the conventional streaming model. Generally, the bandwidth and access plans available from existing ISP services to Australians today are all that are necessary to access the Reeltime service.

"The arrangement between Pipe and Reeltime creates high speed, secure and closed network/intranet environment between Reeltime and each interconnected ISP, delivering the latest Hollywood arthouse, foreign language movies , children's programs and educational, TV series and other content."

Reeltime has three of the major Motion Picture of America member studios already signed for its Australian TV service, including Sony Pictures, 20th Century Fox and Metro Goldwyn Mayer (MGM) which together supply the majority of Hollywood movies, in addition to independents which include Granada, Palace, IFM, Playboy, World Cinema Online, and Hopscotch. Reeltime says it will be announcing content further agreements prior to launch of the service through Pipe's ISP customers in early June 2006 .

A full list of Pipe's interconnected ISPs can be found at : http://www.pipenetworks.com/Peering/who.shtml