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Australia - Sydney | October 12, 2022
The 2022 NRL Grand Final on 2 October, which saw Penrith Panthers beat the Parramatta Eels, drew a record average streaming audience of 389,000 viewers - up 7% year-on-year - on 9Now, making it one of the largest live sports deliveries in Australian history for both Nine (ASX: NEC) and Akamai Technologies, Inc., (NASDAQ: AKAM), the cloud company that powers and protects life online.
The 2022 NRL Grand Final hit a record for Nine and Akamai, registering the highest ever live streaming audience for an AFL or NRL Grand Final in Australian TV history.
Partnering with Akamai since 2014, Nine utilises Akamai for video delivery and storage including comprehensive live event support for major events such as the NRL, enabling the network to deliver high-quality video consistently to its viewers with enhanced customer experience. Akamai assists 9Now with video workflow, delivery and security with the support its of streaming solutions.
“The NRL Grand Final is one of Australia’s most highly anticipated sporting events and it’s essential that high-quality, live video footage can be delivered to homes and handhelds in a fast, reliable, consistent and safe manner,” said Chris Gibbs, Managing Director and Regional Vice President ANZ for Akamai. “We are excited to be able to work with the Nine Network, one of Australia’s premier broadcasters, to deliver the grand final seamlessly to fans. With more sports and other live events coming up over the course of the year, viewers can look forward to streaming these events across all their devices wherever they are in the country.”
“Nine is proud to partner with Akamai again to deliver a flawless 2022 NRL Grand Final on 9Now. The scalability, robustness and reliability of Akamai’s solutions has helped grow 9Now’s live audiences significantly and we’re looking forward to scaling greater heights and breaking more records with Akamai as the summer sporting heats up,” said Andre Lackmann, Nine’s Technology Director.
About Akamai
Akamai is the cybersecurity and cloud computing company that powers and protects business online. Our market-leading security solutions, superior threat intelligence, and global operations team provide defense in depth to safeguard enterprise data and applications everywhere. Akamai’s full-stack cloud computing solutions deliver performance and affordability on the world’s most distributed platform. Global enterprises trust Akamai to provide the industry-leading reliability, scale, and expertise they need to grow their business with confidence. Learn more at akamai.com and akamai.com/blog, or follow Akamai Technologies on X and LinkedIn.
About Nine Network
Nine is Australia’s largest locally owned media company – the home of Australia’s most trusted and loved brands spanning News, Sport, Lifestyle, and Entertainment, we pride ourselves on creating the best content, accessed by consumers when and how they want.
Nine’s assets include the 9Network, major mastheads such as The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and The Australian Financial Review, radio stations 2GB, 3AW, 4BC and 6PR, digital properties such as nine.com.au, 9Now, 9Honey, Pedestrian.TV, Drive, subscription video platform Stan and a majority investment in Domain Group.