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Press Release -- October 5th, 2010
Source: Akamai
Tags: Content Delivery, Video

IFC.com Utilizing Akamai HD Network to Broadcast Live Online Coverage of South by Southwest Festival

Jennifer Donovan
Media Relations
Akamai Technologies, Inc.
650-627-5395
jdonovan@akamai.com
–or– Noelle Faris
Investor Relations
Akamai Technologies, Inc.
617-444-4676
nfaris@akamai.com

CAMBRIDGE, MA – March 05, 2010 – Akamai Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:AKAM, news, filings), the leader in powering video, dynamic transactions and enterprise applications online today announced that IFC.com will utilize Akamai’s HD Network to deliver live online video direct from the South by Southwest (SxSW) Festival, in Austin, Texas March 12-21, 2010. IFC.com recently implemented the Akamai HD for Adobe® Flash® technology, which is designed to deliver an uninterrupted, high-quality live streaming experience to online audiences using the Adobe Flash format.

Available at www.IFC.com/sxsw, three events will be streamed daily at 12:00 PM, 3:00 PM and 6:00 PM (all times CST). A key feature of Akamai HD for Adobe Flash 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. iStreamPlanet will provide the encoding and production services, and the video feeds will be available in eight different bit rates.

IFC.com’s SxSW site will be highly interactive, allowing viewers to take part in the event via a custom social media player powered by ClipSync. Viewers will be able to engage in “social activities” such as live chat, conversations with performers, and live polls, all in real-time as the live events are being streamed online.

“The beauty of live streaming video is that it offers millions of people immediate global access to local events from the comfort and convenience of their computers and mobile devices,” said Craig Parks, vice president of digital media at IFC. “The flexibility of Akamai’s HD Network, coupled with ClipSync’s social media player, allows us to offer a much higher quality, live interactive experience to users, which extends the reach and awareness of IFC’s SXSW events and allows more enthusiasts to experience the festival.”

“The Akamai HD Network is designed to let broadcasters like IFC enhance and expand the impact of their television offerings and provide broadcast scale audiences with highly engaging, memorable and interactive online video experiences,” said Robert Hughes, Executive Vice President of Global Sales, Services and Marketing at Akamai. “Akamai HD Network customers have found that when offering high definition video content, that takes full advantage of the interactivity of the Internet, viewers are more satisfied, leading to a more positive and engaging experience with a company’s brand.”

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
The 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 Adobe Flash or other third-party technologies referenced above or to Akamai’s streaming technologies such that they are no longer inter-operable, failure of our services to operate as expected, unexpected termination of Akamai’s relationship with IFC.com, cancellation of the planned broadcast, 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.

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