Akamai, NewsMarket to Drive Olympic Video

Written by Ryan Lawler

Monday, June 9. 2008 at 05:45 PM EDT Post a comment

Digg   Del.icio.us   Reddit   Email This

no ratings

• Login to Rate

While Limelight Networks Inc. (Nasdaq: LLNW) might be handling the content delivery services for NBC Universal 's Olympics site, Akamai Technologies Inc. (Nasdaq: AKAM) says it will also be employed for coverage of the games.

Akamai announced today that it will provide content delivery network (CDN) services to The NewsMarket, a global aggregator of online news. The NewsMarket chose Akamai to provide Web application acceleration and media delivery services, including Flash streaming, in its aggregation of Olympics coverage in English and Chinese.

The move is significant because The NewsMarket was selected by the International Olympic Committee to provide broadcast-quality digital video and other multimedia content to the news media covering the event. As a result, Akamai's services will be used to speed the delivery of raw news clips that can be used in reporting from the Games.

Limelight Networks reportedly will be handling content delivery for NBC's coverage of the games at NBCOlympics.com. But Akamai product marketing manager Suzanne Johnson says Limelight is not alone in that deal. "NBC is a long-standing customer and we're working with them," Johnson says.

Furthermore, although NBC has the broadcast rights for the U.S. market, there are significant opportunities on a global basis. In addition to the business-to-business services enabled with the NewsMarket deal, Johnson says, "We have a lot of long-term customers that handle a lot of TV networks in Canada and the U.K. We're gearing up on a number of levels to support the consumer side" of Olympics coverage.