Akamai Extends Streaming Media Leadership with Addition of Major Entertainment and Enterprise Customers
Akamai's FreeFlow Streaming service has delivered millions of streams to date for today's leading eBusinesses including Apple, FOXSports, and Nike, and has recently added streaming customers Adobe, astonishDV, Bannerlab.com, BBC America, Big Screen Sports, The Children's Place, CBS SportsLine, Cool Link, FarmClub.com, HoopsTV.com, Lycos, Microsoft, Omnipod, Paramount Digital Entertainment, RadicalMail, threesquared, Ticketmaster Online-CitySearch, Inc., Voxxy, Wired, and Zooropa. These customers rely on FreeFlow Streaming to deliver the highest quality streams to the largest audiences, reliably and consistently. In addition, since July 1999, Akamai has been the exclusive network provider for Apple's QuickTime TV (QTV) network.
Extending its leadership in the delivery of streaming media, Akamai's FreeFlow Streaming service provides the highest quality streaming media delivery solution available across today's largest globally distributed network of over 2,750 Web servers within 150 Internet backbones, ISPs cable head ends, DSL providers and satellite facilities. The scalability of the Akamai network ensures an unparalleled reach to support massive world-wide audiences, or hundreds of thousands of concurrent streams. Leveraging Akamai's advanced technology for delivering broadband quality streams, FreeFlow Streaming supports on-demand, live and scheduled broadcast content.
"Today's news demonstrates the rapid adoption of Akamai's streaming services by leading eBusinesses," said Dan Fraisl, vice president and general manager of streaming at Akamai. "Akamai offers a highly innovative streaming solution that combines the ability to evaluate real-time Internet conditions, server capacity, content location and user location, with an advanced delivery mechanism for utilizing both the terrestrial Internet and best-of-breed satellite capabilities. The result is a one-of-a-kind technology that dynamically determines the optimal transport route to distribute content to points closest to viewers."
"Akamai's streaming service helped make CBS SportsLine's coverage of 'March Mayhem' our most successful event ever. Its ability to support the thousands of end users who simultaneously accessed our live audio and on-demand audio and video coverage of the NCAA tournament contributed to CBS SportsLine's achieving new traffic records," said Dan Leichtenschlag, senior vice president, operations for SportsLine.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: SPLN), the leading global Internet sports media company, and publisher of CBS SportsLine.
"Apple has added 40 of the best entertainment and news channels to the new QuickTime TV network in less than a year," said Philip Schiller, Apple's vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. "With Akamai as our exclusive QTV network provider, we have been able to break through traditional Internet limitations by pushing high-quality audio and video content closer to Internet surfers and delivering a better media experience."
As a 24-hour basketball network, HoopsTV.com employs Akamai's streaming service to deliver daily original content from playgrounds, high schools and colleges, and the NBA; content that can't be found anywhere else. "The most valuable commodity of the content provider is the attention of its audience," said Scott O'Neil, president of HoopsTV.com. "Akamai's powerful streaming service has enabled HoopsTV.com to deliver tens of thousands of reliable, high quality Webcasts, helping HoopsTV.com to establish itself as one of the most popular sports and entertainment destinations on the Web."
Akamai's Proprietary SteadyStreamSM Technology
FreeFlow Streaming is built upon Akamai's EdgeAdvantage platform that utilizes sophisticated algorithms to monitor the Internet on a real-time basis, understand the location of the requesting user, and make intelligent decisions about the best and most efficient Akamai edge server from which to deliver content to the end user. In addition, FreeFlow Streaming incorporates Akamai's proprietary SteadyStreamSM technology that splits encoded broadcast signals into multiple streams sent across the Akamai network, and then recombines them at the edge of the Internet to recreate the streams into their original high-quality format.
For a content provider, Akamai's FreeFlow Streaming service is easy to implement in addition to providing an entire solution for on-demand or broadcast events. Akamai has dedicated event producers to support the entire process of executing a live broadcast, and has partnered with leading encoding and production companies in order to offer best-of-breed providers for captivating a Web audience. For end users, no plug-ins or other browser modifications are necessary to experience the enhanced performance of Akamai's FreeFlow Streaming service in today's popular formats.
Advanced Reporting Services
Akamai's FreeFlow Streaming service is accompanied by detailed user reporting for content providers to understand the audience and the effectiveness of the content. In real-time, content providers can assess the success of events and know immediately the number of viewers, the number of concurrent streams and from which geographic location the viewers originate. These statistics can be viewed historically in up to five-minute increments to understand what part of the programming viewers watched, at what bit rates and with what format. These reports include:
Pricing and Availability
Available in QuickTime and Windows Media Technologies, Akamai's FreeFlow Streaming service is providing customers with the delivery of live and on-demand streaming audio and video. Akamai's reporting tools are also available to monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of streaming media content. Pricing is available for sustained usage models including on-demand clips or Internet radio, as well as one-time events.
About Akamai
Akamai Technologies is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts and has offices in San Mateo and Cupertino, California, and Europe. Akamai is the leader in distributed content, streaming media, and applications delivery, serving over 225 of the Web's most popular properties including over 100 leading e-commerce companies. Akamai has deployed the broadest global network for content, streaming media, and applications delivery with more than 2000 servers in over 40 countries directly connected to more than 100 different telecommunications networks. Akamai (pronounced AH kuh my) is Hawaiian for intelligent, clever and cool.
| Contacts: |
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| Jeff Young Akamai Technologies 617-250-3913 jyoung@akamai.com |
--or-- | Caryn Converse Akamai Technologies 617-250-4661 converse@akamai.com |
BBC America, Lycos, Microsoft®, Paramount Digital Entertainment, and Wired, among top eBusinesses rapidly adopting Akamai's FreeFlowSM Streaming service
INTERNET WORLD, LOS ANGELES, CA -- April 5, 2000 -- Akamai Technologies (NASDAQ: AKAM), the foremost provider of global, high performance services for the delivery of Internet content, streaming media, and applications, announced today a series of leading media, entertainment and enterprise-focused eBusinesses that are utilizing Akamai's FreeFlowSM Streaming service.Akamai's FreeFlow Streaming service has delivered millions of streams to date for today's leading eBusinesses including Apple, FOXSports, and Nike, and has recently added streaming customers Adobe, astonishDV, Bannerlab.com, BBC America, Big Screen Sports, The Children's Place, CBS SportsLine, Cool Link, FarmClub.com, HoopsTV.com, Lycos, Microsoft, Omnipod, Paramount Digital Entertainment, RadicalMail, threesquared, Ticketmaster Online-CitySearch, Inc., Voxxy, Wired, and Zooropa. These customers rely on FreeFlow Streaming to deliver the highest quality streams to the largest audiences, reliably and consistently. In addition, since July 1999, Akamai has been the exclusive network provider for Apple's QuickTime TV (QTV) network.
Extending its leadership in the delivery of streaming media, Akamai's FreeFlow Streaming service provides the highest quality streaming media delivery solution available across today's largest globally distributed network of over 2,750 Web servers within 150 Internet backbones, ISPs cable head ends, DSL providers and satellite facilities. The scalability of the Akamai network ensures an unparalleled reach to support massive world-wide audiences, or hundreds of thousands of concurrent streams. Leveraging Akamai's advanced technology for delivering broadband quality streams, FreeFlow Streaming supports on-demand, live and scheduled broadcast content.
"Today's news demonstrates the rapid adoption of Akamai's streaming services by leading eBusinesses," said Dan Fraisl, vice president and general manager of streaming at Akamai. "Akamai offers a highly innovative streaming solution that combines the ability to evaluate real-time Internet conditions, server capacity, content location and user location, with an advanced delivery mechanism for utilizing both the terrestrial Internet and best-of-breed satellite capabilities. The result is a one-of-a-kind technology that dynamically determines the optimal transport route to distribute content to points closest to viewers."
"Akamai's streaming service helped make CBS SportsLine's coverage of 'March Mayhem' our most successful event ever. Its ability to support the thousands of end users who simultaneously accessed our live audio and on-demand audio and video coverage of the NCAA tournament contributed to CBS SportsLine's achieving new traffic records," said Dan Leichtenschlag, senior vice president, operations for SportsLine.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: SPLN), the leading global Internet sports media company, and publisher of CBS SportsLine.
"Apple has added 40 of the best entertainment and news channels to the new QuickTime TV network in less than a year," said Philip Schiller, Apple's vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. "With Akamai as our exclusive QTV network provider, we have been able to break through traditional Internet limitations by pushing high-quality audio and video content closer to Internet surfers and delivering a better media experience."
As a 24-hour basketball network, HoopsTV.com employs Akamai's streaming service to deliver daily original content from playgrounds, high schools and colleges, and the NBA; content that can't be found anywhere else. "The most valuable commodity of the content provider is the attention of its audience," said Scott O'Neil, president of HoopsTV.com. "Akamai's powerful streaming service has enabled HoopsTV.com to deliver tens of thousands of reliable, high quality Webcasts, helping HoopsTV.com to establish itself as one of the most popular sports and entertainment destinations on the Web."
Akamai's Proprietary SteadyStreamSM Technology
FreeFlow Streaming is built upon Akamai's EdgeAdvantage platform that utilizes sophisticated algorithms to monitor the Internet on a real-time basis, understand the location of the requesting user, and make intelligent decisions about the best and most efficient Akamai edge server from which to deliver content to the end user. In addition, FreeFlow Streaming incorporates Akamai's proprietary SteadyStreamSM technology that splits encoded broadcast signals into multiple streams sent across the Akamai network, and then recombines them at the edge of the Internet to recreate the streams into their original high-quality format.
For a content provider, Akamai's FreeFlow Streaming service is easy to implement in addition to providing an entire solution for on-demand or broadcast events. Akamai has dedicated event producers to support the entire process of executing a live broadcast, and has partnered with leading encoding and production companies in order to offer best-of-breed providers for captivating a Web audience. For end users, no plug-ins or other browser modifications are necessary to experience the enhanced performance of Akamai's FreeFlow Streaming service in today's popular formats.
Advanced Reporting Services
Akamai's FreeFlow Streaming service is accompanied by detailed user reporting for content providers to understand the audience and the effectiveness of the content. In real-time, content providers can assess the success of events and know immediately the number of viewers, the number of concurrent streams and from which geographic location the viewers originate. These statistics can be viewed historically in up to five-minute increments to understand what part of the programming viewers watched, at what bit rates and with what format. These reports include:
- Average number of concurrent streams
- Number of hits
- Minutes of content viewed
- Maximum concurrent streams
- Amount of content delivered
- Number of unique viewers
Pricing and Availability
Available in QuickTime and Windows Media Technologies, Akamai's FreeFlow Streaming service is providing customers with the delivery of live and on-demand streaming audio and video. Akamai's reporting tools are also available to monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of streaming media content. Pricing is available for sustained usage models including on-demand clips or Internet radio, as well as one-time events.
About Akamai
Akamai Technologies is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts and has offices in San Mateo and Cupertino, California, and Europe. Akamai is the leader in distributed content, streaming media, and applications delivery, serving over 225 of the Web's most popular properties including over 100 leading e-commerce companies. Akamai has deployed the broadest global network for content, streaming media, and applications delivery with more than 2000 servers in over 40 countries directly connected to more than 100 different telecommunications networks. Akamai (pronounced AH kuh my) is Hawaiian for intelligent, clever and cool.
