TV 2 Utilizes Akamai HD Network For Live and On-Demand Television and Live Events in HD

LAS VEGAS, April 14 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- NAB CONFERENCE -- Akamai Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq: AKAM), the leader in powering video, dynamic transactions and enterprise applications online, today announced that TV 2 is utilizing the Akamai HD Network to deliver live high definition (HD) online video streaming for its Sumo subscription Internet TV portal, including delivery of content to mobile devices such as the iPhone.

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Sumo, a premium live and on-demand content service for sporting events and global television shows, was launched in 2000 and designed by TV 2 to reach a new generation of viewers watching television and video online.  In June 2009, TV 2 Sumo was the first TV station in Norway to launch live HD web TV, and it needed to ensure that it could support this higher bandwidth service with the same open standards and delivery its existing Internet video services offered, as well as adding the ability to deliver content to mobile devices.  To address this issue, TV 2 implemented the Akamai HD Network for Microsoft Silverlight technology, which is designed to deliver an uninterrupted, high-quality live streaming experience to online audiences.  A key feature of Akamai HD for Microsoft Silverlight is adaptive bitrate streaming, which is architected to enable uninterrupted video playback at HD bitrates that seamlessly adjust to fluctuations in available bandwidth to provide the best quality viewing experience possible for each user.  

"We realized the advantages to our subscribers of offering live and on-demand HD Web TV, but also the inherent technology challenges that accompany this approach," said Glenn S. Pedersen, Senior Business Developer at TV 2 Sumo. "The Akamai HD Network is the perfect solution to support this new service with its robust platform and scalability, and enables us to stream content with high performance and reliability to our viewers.  The adaptive bitrate streaming functionality of Akamai's service is very important for us, because in our experience, four out of five viewers will leave a stream even if it buffers only once.  Since turning on the Akamai HD Network, we've seen a measureable increase in the number of subscribers to Sumo and this has made a real impact on our turnover and revenue.  As we also provide the online video platform for other broadcasters and media companies, working with a company like Akamai is very important to us."

"The Akamai HD Network is helping break new ground in the provision of HD services for online viewers," said Alex Gibbons, Director Digital Media Europe at Akamai. "The fact that HD online video is now being provided by mainstream broadcasters such as TV 2 shows this is now an established and fast growing market across Europe.  Our solutions have been designed to help content owners give their viewers the content they want, in the right format, with the performance to match."

Akamai's HD Network was developed with the goal of delivering the highest quality experience at broadcast audience scale(1) across the industry's most popular devices, platforms and runtimes, and enabling large-scale broadcasters and film distributors to increase audience engagement and expand revenues through higher quality video playback and interactivity.  Akamai's HD Network was further designed to allow content owners and publishers to deliver live and on-demand content while leveraging an infrastructure of tens of thousands of HTTP servers deployed globally in ISP servers.  

The Akamai Difference

Akamai® provides market-leading managed services for powering video, dynamic transactions, and enterprise applications online. Having pioneered the content delivery market one decade ago, Akamai's services have been adopted by the world's most recognized brands across diverse industries. The alternative to centralized Web infrastructure, Akamai's global network of tens of thousands of distributed servers provides the scale, reliability, insight and performance for businesses to succeed online. Akamai has transformed the Internet into a more viable place to inform, entertain, interact, and collaborate. To experience The Akamai Difference, visit www.akamai.com.

Akamai Statement Under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act

This press release contains information about future expectations, plans and prospects of Akamai's management that constitute forward-looking statements for purposes of the safe harbor provisions under The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by these forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors including, but not limited to, the effects of any attempts to intentionally disrupt our services or network by hackers or others, changes in our customers' or  Akamai's technologies such that they are no longer inter-operable, lack of market acceptance of the services and technology we offer, failure of our services to operate as expected, a failure of Akamai's network infrastructure, and other factors that are discussed in Akamai's Annual Report on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, and other documents periodically filed with the SEC.

(1) Defined as the average Nielsen audience.

SOURCE Akamai Technologies, Inc.