Beam.tv and Independent Media Distribution (IMD) last week became the first companies in the UK to digitally deliver a television commercial to a broadcaster via the internet when a Nestle commercial was delivered via an end-to-end digital IP network to Viacom-owned MTV, writes Rick Dacey.
Beam.tv and Independent Media Distribution (IMD) last week became the first companies in the UK to digitally deliver a television commercial to a broadcaster via the internet when a Nestle commercial was delivered via an end-to-end digital IP network to Viacom-owned MTV, writes Rick Dacey.

Building on a seven-year history of distributing radio commercials direct to stations, IMD has imported the necessary technology into a growing set of broadcasters, including Channel 4, CNBC, Emap and Viacom, to facilitate its new service of distributing finished TV commercials and promos.

Bob Coles, IMD sales and marketing director, said of the company's 18-month foray into commercial TV distribution: 'We were surprised and delighted to find that, once we had stuck our head over the parapet, we found ourselves being dragged into areas that we hadn't previously considered.'

Beam.tv is integrating its archiving facilities into the new package so that each new digital master file is automatically archived.

The current technological capabilities allow the 100Mb per second fibre connections to transport media of up to 10 minutes, such as promos and commercials. There are no immediate plans for IMD or Beam.tv to move into delivery of long-form programming.

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