With 18.6 Million Simultaneous Viewers Streaming VIVO IPL, Hotstar Shatters Viewership Record Again

Delivered on Akamai, concurrent streaming viewers on Hotstar grew by more than 80 percent over 2018

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May 20, 2019, 06:30 ET

MUMBAI, India and BANGALORE, India, May 20, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- The twelfth edition of the VIVO IPL cricket tournament concluded with another high for reported online viewership. Hotstar, India's largest premium streaming platform, leveraged Akamai Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: AKAM), the intelligent edge platform to live stream the VIVO IPL 2019 final between the Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings to 18.6 million concurrent viewers.

Akamai Broadcast Operations Control Center (BOCC) staff monitor live video streaming quality and network performance during a VIVO IPL cricket match. Akamai BOCC facilities are staffed by specialized broadcast issue resolution experts possessing hybrid skills across media and networking to address the unique needs of Akamai OTT customers.

The VIVO IPL 2018 edition saw Hotstar and Akamai shatter multiple records for reported concurrency in quick succession. In 2019, Hotstar had already created history during the first three weeks of the VIVO IPL by exceeding its total viewership of 2018. During the course of the final match between Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings, the average concurrent viewership of 11.1 million users was higher than the peak concurrency set during the VIVO IPL 2018 final with 10.3 million users. This average concurrency was bolstered by Hotstar growing its platform reach from 202 million users during the 2018 IPL tournament to over 300 million users during the course of this years' tournament.

According the to the GSMA, over 430 million people in India have access to mobile internet services, helping viewership and access to entertainment in India to go mobile over the past year. This was exemplified in the VIVO IPL 2019 final as well with 91 percent of viewers watching the match via mobile. This brings with it a set of challenges including planning for multiple device types and network conditions in ensuring that mobile internet users experience as little a lag as possible when it comes to enjoying live sporting content such as the VIVO IPL 2019 final.

Commenting on the record, Varun Narang, Chief Product Officer, Hotstar added, "At Hotstar, we have an innate belief in delivering a game-changing viewing experience to our consumers through ideas that challenge the status quo. The achievements of this season once again bear witness to Hotstar being the most preferred sports destination for the country. With technology as our backbone and our all-round expertise in driving scale, we are confident we will continue to break global records and set new benchmarks with each passing year."

"Viewership of the VIVO IPL event on mobile devices has been growing exponentially over time, and we fully expect this trend to continue. In setting these records and making sure that viewers are enjoying live sporting events, the challenge will always be being able to provide the necessary technology support and delivery capability to platforms like Hotstar," said Parimal Pandya, Vice President, Media, Asia, Pacific and Japan, Akamai Technologies. "We have worked closely with Hotstar every year to design solutions that help in scaling and ensuring as low latency as possible so that viewers can enjoy a broadcast-quality experience. Along with this, we have also delivered on expectations of managing geographical spikes in traffic every year while matching users' expectations of streaming quality."

VIVO IPL 2019 began on 23 March and wrapped up on 12 May 2019. The tournament started earlier than in years past to account for the upcoming ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 which begins on the 30^th of May and also the 2019 General Elections in India to constitute the 17^th Lok Sabha. Both these events are set to attract millions of users over digital channels as they come to a close.

About Hotstar
Hotstar is India's largest premium streaming platform with more than 100,000 hours of drama and movies in 9 languages, and coverage of every major global sporting event. Launched in early 2015, it is one of India's most downloaded apps and has attracted more than 300 million monthly active users (MAUs) on the back of highly evolved video streaming technology and high attention to the quality of experience across devices and platforms. Hotstar has secured top spots on the Google Play Store as well as the Apple App Store and has consistently been named among the most popular apps on both platforms since its launch.

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About Akamai
Akamai secures and delivers digital experiences for the world's largest companies. Akamai's intelligent edge platform surrounds everything, from the enterprise to the cloud, so customers and their businesses can be fast, smart, and secure. Top brands globally rely on Akamai to help them realize competitive advantage through agile solutions that extend the power of their multi-cloud architectures. Akamai keeps decisions, apps and experiences closer to users than anyone — and attacks and threats far away. Akamai's portfolio of edge security, web and mobile performance, enterprise access and video delivery solutions is supported by unmatched customer service, analytics and 24/7/365 monitoring. To learn why the world's top brands trust Akamai, visit www.akamai.com, blogs.akamai.com, or @Akamai on Twitter. You can find our global contact information at www.akamai.com/locations.

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SOURCE Akamai Technologies, Inc.