You had to know that Akamai (NASDAQ:AKAM - chart, news, filings) was handling a big pile of World Cup traffic, considering their dominant position in the content delivery sector. But until today’s announcement, we didn’t know too many details. Akamai handled streaming for some 24 global broadcasters into 65 countries, with key major customers including ESPN, Prisacom, Televisa, TV2 and TV4.
At its peak, Akamai delivered some 1.6M concurrent streams for the competition. Interest overall doubled since the 2006 event. Or perhaps more accurately, people used the internet twice as much to keep up with the World Cup than last time, with much of that coming at the expense of traditional sources such as television. On ESPN3.com, matches were viewed by 7.4 million unique viewers.
The largest draw this time? U.S. vs. Algeria and England vs. Slovenia. Hmmm, apparently Americans were actually keeping track of their soccer team this year, since I don’t think the Algerian audience is large enough to move that needle ahead of, say, the finals…
I can’t quite figure out one bit of the PR though. Akamai said that their Net Usage Index for News peaked during Italy vs Slovenia. But Italy didn’t play Slovenia, they were in different groups and neither made it out of group play… Italy vs Slovakia perhaps? Or England vs Slovenia? [EDIT: Akamai is correcting the PR, the correct game was Italy vs Slovakia]
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Rob:
Thanks for the post. Not sure about the Net Usage Index comment regarding Italy vs. Slovenia — I’ve pinged our PR folks to find out if it is an error.
–David Belson
Director, Market Intelligence @ Akamai
Hi David, here’s Slovenia’s schedule and Italy’s schedule from FIFA’s site. Not that it matters all that much when it comes to measuring traffic levels, excellent coverage overall regardless!
But those lucky IRISH, with their tech savvy crowd is choosing another route for the FINAL!
To win the race, you must FINISH the race!
http://www.level3.com/index.cfm?pageID=491&PR=911
Unfortunately for the Irish, they let the French get away with an illegal handball and didn’t make it in, let alone to the finals!
You were right, Rob — it was Italy vs. Slovakia. Thanks for catching the error — we will fix it on the release.
–David Belson
Well, at least I wasn’t hallucinating. Sorry to be the messenger on this one.
When I first read the P/R I thought: did we lose that one, too?!?…
(I’m Italian)