FOX Sports and NFL Rely on Level to Deliver Super Bowl for the 5 Consecutive Year

Level 3 Communications, Inc. (NYSE: LVLT) today announced that for the 25th consecutive year it will provide television broadcast video services for Super Bowl XLVIII on Feb. 2, using Level 3s Vyvx VenueNet+ technology.

As one of the most-watched television events in the U.S. each year, the Super Bowl includes a unique set of broadcast requirements in order to ensure a seamless, high-definition (HD) delivery of the game for fervent football fans around the globe. Super Bowl XLVIII comes with the added complexity of building, for the first time in history, a separate broadcast location in Times Square for FOX Sports. The Times Square remote location includes 4,500-square-feet of temporary office space, using more than 200,000 feet of cable.

This year, the Super Bowl will be hosted at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., which is connected directly to Level 3s advanced fiber-optic network, enabling the TV broadcast of the event. Level 3s equipment and connectivity into the venue provide FOX with fully diverse, end-to-end on-net service to ensure better reliability and control over the delivery process. As part of the service, FOX will also use Level 3s JPEG 2000 compression services, which the broadcaster employed at all NFL venues during the 2013 season. In total, more than 5,000 hours of video content will be acquired, encoded and transported across Level 3s Vyvx VenueNet+ platform as part of the Super Bowl coverage.

This is the first time in history the Super Bowl will be played outdoors in winter weather conditions. As part of the celebration for this unprecedented event, FOX will incorporate Times Square for a weeklong event of coverage prior to the game. said Keith Goldberg, vice president Global Operations & Transmission Services at FOX Networks Group. More than ever, performance is critical, and Level 3s excellent track record of delivering the Super Bowl in addition to many of our previous professional sports broadcasts were ultimately key factors in our decision to work with them in 2014.

2014 also marks the first time a FOX-broadcasted Super Bowl will include FOX Sports 1 (FS1) extensive live coverage. FS1 is FOXs new national 24/7 multisport cable channel launched last year to more than 90 million homes.

This years Super Bowl is a first for us, in that its located in a stadium where weve never hosted an event of this magnitude before, said NFL vice president of Media Operations Glenn Adamo. With this level of complexity, its important we use a trusted partner to help us deliver the game to viewers around the world. Weve used Level 3 for 25 years, and each year, theyve been able to ensure the NFLs fervent football fans get the best quality broadcast available.

In addition to delivering the game, Level 3 will also carry the pre-game and post-game feeds to all NFL operations centers; NFL Films in Mt. Laurel, NJ and NFL Network studios in Culver City, CA, NFL Network Master Control in Atlanta, as well as other broadcast networks and satellite teleport sites for global distribution.

Last years Super Bowl broadcast was viewed by an estimated total audience of 108.4 million viewers inthe United States - making it the third most-watched television program in history - and Level 3 was instrumental in making that happen, said Mark Taylor, vice president of Media and IP Services at Level 3. Weve worked with FOX and the NFL for many years, so we know how important it is to provide a seamless viewing experience for their businesses and viewers. From planning and strategy to build-out and execution, were there every step of the way.

Level 3s Vyvx VenueNet+ technology is engineered to provide unparalleled HD and standard-definition (SD) digital video services, with added HD and SD encoding, high-speed Internet and telephony services. The Vyvx technology is used in all 31 NFL football venues across the country.

The Super Bowl XLVIII broadcast will air on FOX networks on Feb. 2 at 6:30 p.m. EST. For more information on Level 3s video and streaming solutions, visit http://www.level3videocloud.com.

About Level 3 Communications

http://www.level3.com/>Level 3 Communications, Inc. (NYSE: LVLT) is a Fortune 500 company that provides local, national and global communications services to enterprise, government and carrier customers. Level 3s comprehensive portfolio of secure, managed solutions includes fiber and infrastructure solutions; IP-based voice and data communications; wide-area Ethernet services; video and content distribution; data center and cloud-based solutions. Level 3 serves customers in more than 500 markets in 55 countries over a global services platform anchored by owned fiber networks on three continents and connected by extensive undersea facilities. For more information, please visit http://www.level3.com or get to know us on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

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