I’ve spent the entire day reading about Content Delivery Networks (CDN) and I’m burnt out.  Every broadband video company needs a CDN solution; after all, that’s how the data is propagated through the internet.  We’ve been considering developing our own CDN solution, but there are a few issues with this approach.  It is the CDN that ensures video is delivered in a timely manner. It is also the CDN that is responsible for website analytics, but most importantly the CDN handles Digital Media Rights (DRM).   While I do believe that we could create a functional delivery mechanism to create our unique video experience, and we could utilize a 3^rd party service for analytics, it’s the DRM portion that concerns me.  To keep our content competitive and fresh, we’re going to need to form relationships with major network content distributors, and I bet money that they will be less than interested in an unproved DRM methodology.  If we can’t protect our partner’s content, then they won’t want to be a partner at all.  This is why I’ve decided it is best that we look for proven services to deliver our content.   As long as an outsourced CDN doesn’t interfere with website functionality as we envision it, I think it’s the best way to go.

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