As the lines continue to blur between what used to be clear-cut boundaries separating cable companies, telephone companies, Internet service providers -- carriers of all types look for the best way to seamlessly integrate their legacy and emerging services. Many in the industry are betting on IPTV to level the playing field among the broad array of competitors from small regional telcos to traditional media giants.

Broadwing Communications, LLC, a consolidated subsidiary of Broadwing Corporation, is one of the companies leading this effort with next-generation media services that offer content providers flexible multicasting capabilities, Ethernet or ASI delivery options, and scalable growth.

"Traditional telecom companies and solidly entrenched cable companies are realizing that they must move beyond traditional linear programming," said Del Bothof, vice president and general manager of Broadwing's media services group. "Broadwing makes emerging non-linear services like personalized television and interactive programming commercially feasible by enabling more efficient distribution of media content to multiple locations."

Internet Protocol-based television services (IPTV) offer an attractive way for new entrants in the category to fast-forward to the "now" technologies, as well as those on the horizon. As the IPTV revolution takes off, content owners, distributors and service providers are looking for a scalable, cost-effective, and reliable means to distribute next-generation IPTV content such as high-definition, interactive and even personalized programming.

Broadwing's real-time Dynamic synchronous Transfer Mode (DTM) Multicast solution employs the point-to-multipoint efficiency of satellite, the asymmetrical bandwidth of ATM, the scalability of IP, and the security and Quality of Service (QoS) and capacity of fiber transport. Service providers gain price and performance benefits as a dynamic multicast solution efficiently uses network resources through this distribution method.

"DTM-enabled forward distribution clearly fills an important market need as IPTV emerges as a more mainstream service," said Del Bothof, vice president and general manager of Broadwing's media services group. "Our technology provides all of the positives and none of the negatives of legacy forward-distribution technologies."

A leader in delivering the promise of IPTV, Broadwing announced last year the expansion of its Media Services Network to more than 40 U.S. markets, giving the company the largest DTM network in the world. This step allowed the company to meet the increasing demand for media services driven in part by Broadwing's growing transport of professional sports broadcasts via alliances with Intelsat and HTN.