AEG Digital Media and Akamai Have Landmark Month in Online Video Streaming
AEG Digital Media and Akamai collaborate to deliver ultimate viewing experiences to fans around the world
Los Angeles, CA(31 May 2011)
AEG Digital Media, provider of complete webcast management and digital media services, announced today that it teamed with Akamai Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: AKAM), the leading provider of cloud optimization services, to deliver almost 170 million streams and more than 2,400 terabytes across the Akamai HD Network in April, the largest month ever for events enabled across the two companies' platforms. The two companies collaborated to broadcast the most watched online events in April, which included the Royal Wedding and the Coachella Music and Arts Festival.
According to Nielsen, there were 14.7 billion online viewing sessions during April 2011 alone. As fans continued to turn to the Internet to access their favorite live events and online viewership grows, AEG Digital Media and Akamai have shown that they can bring consumers the ultimate interactive viewing experience.
AEG Digital Media and Akamai have provided their knowledge and expertise to bring hundreds of live events to online viewers spanning the international sports, music and entertainment industries, and in April delivered the following:
- The GRAMMY LiveTM webcast brought 3.8 million fans to the red carpet, letting them peak behind the scenes and check out after-party celebrations. And, the Hawk, AEG Digital Media's social media management tool, aggregated and reviewed more than 30,000 GRAMMY-generated tweets.
- Coachella's webcast gave 4 million fans across the world access to a wide variety of live music acts.
- William and Kate's live-streamed nuptials drew 72 million viewers, according to Mashable.com, and was tracked as the 6th largest event on the Akamai Net Usage Index for News.
"More media companies are taking advantage of the fantastic opportunity to engage viewers and add value to programming through digital broadcasts of live events," said Suzanne Johnson, Director of Marketing at Akamai. "We have seen the numbers grow exponentially over the last year and expect that to continue as new devices and platforms emerge. The scale and power of the Akamai HD Network is behind many of these popular events to optimize the highest quality viewing experience on a global basis. Pulling events of this magnitude off is no small feat, so it's critical that companies have strong technology partners like AEG Digital Media, who can assist on the production and management of these events. Together with AEG, Akamai is helping to change the way entertainment is experienced online and reducing complexity across the value chain."
"The live digital broadcast landscape is constantly evolving and our teams are adapting services and technologies to provide the best viewing experiences online," said John Petrocelli, Vice President of Sales and Business Development for AEG Digital Media. "Our unique approach has set the standard for live online events, and through the help of our partners and customers, we've been able to bring incredible events to viewers who would have otherwise missed out on the experience."
About Akamai
Akamai® provides market-leading, cloud-based services for optimizing Web and mobile content and applications, online HD video, and secure e-commerce. Combining highly-distributed, energy-efficient computing with intelligent software, Akamai's global platform is transforming the cloud into a more viable place to inform, entertain, advertise, transact and collaborate. To learn how the world's leading enterprises are optimizing their business in the cloud, please visit www.akamai.com and follow @Akamai on Twitter
About AEG Digital Media
AEG Digital Media is the leading provider of complete webcast management, technical media services and video optimization solutions in the digital media industry. We take a broadcast approach to streaming/digital media and enable the world's largest, innovative webcasts and live events. AEG Digital Media is regarded as the definitive turnkey service provider in the market today with a 12 year track record of empowering and enabling the defining moments in internet broadcasting and live streaming media including Live Earth, The Democratic National Convention, the MTV Video Music Awards, TED Conference, FarmAid, The GRAMMYs, the People's Choice Awards, Nickelodeon's Kids Choice Awards, the American Music Awards, Bonnaroo, FIFA World Cup Kickoff concert, the Royal Wedding and Coachella. AEG Digital Media's select customer base also includes VEVO, American Express, HP, Turner, Nokia, Fox, Coca-Cola, Ernst and Young, and Viacom. Based in Los Angeles, we maintain the industry's leading technologies and broadcast operation centers to enable seamless, TV quality live events and on demand media services.
For more information, visit www.aegdigitalmedia.com.