The NewsMarket Chooses Akamai's Web Application Accelerator Service

Akamai Technologies Inc., a leading provider in powering rich media, dynamic transactions and enterprise applications online, and The NewsMarket, a leading platform for global brands to market and deliver video to all their audiences, have announced that Akamai's Web Application Accelerator service will be leveraged to accelerate the subscriber portal, www.thenewsmarket.com, to enable faster accessibility to Olympic-related news coming from China.
The NewsMarket is also using Akamai's Media Delivery solution for Adobe Flash streaming and Electronic Software Delivery for faster video download services for journalists.
In light of growing demand for rights-free, broadcast-standard content around the Beijing Olympics and other topics, The NewsMarket recently launched its Beijing 2008 channel to aggregate and deliver Olympics-related content in English and Chinese.
The company will implement Akamai's Web Application Acceleration and Media Delivery solutions to increase the speed in which journalists in China can preview and download raw news video clips for insertion in their editorial products.
Organisations including Adidas, the International Olympic Committee, Samsung and Volkswagen, as well as Wei Wei, China's musical Olympic Ambassadow, are already using the channel to deliver broadcast-quality video to media outlets around the world.
The NewsMarket's online news media platform enables global brands to upload, market and deliver news video content to more than 16,000 media outlets in 193 countries, consumers, bloggers and other online audiences.
Krish Menon, Chief Technology Officer at The NewsMarket, said: "We are seeing unprecedented media demand for news video about China and the 2008 Olympics Game in Beijing. Working with Akamai will enable us to ensure even faster video delivery to the 16,000+ media organisations who subscribe to The NewsMarket to order content related to Olympic Games and China."
In the business of news and media distribution, news desks, journalists and editors around the world need fast and reliable access to news and media assets. According to Akamai's "State of the Internet" report, China was the source of most of the world's Internet traffic in Q1 2008. As brands and media organisations expand globally to exciting new markets such as China and turn to the Web to create application portals for media distribution, application performance becomes challenging. The ability to search, browse and download multimedia assets quickly - without fail - is critical. Akamai's Web Application Accelerator accelerates these mission-critical business applications for increased subscriber satisfaction and reduced churn.
Brad Rinklin, Vice President of Global Marketing, at Akamai, said: "The media and entertainment industry is undergoing a poignant shift as more consumers get their news and entertainment content online. To support this demand, companies are investing in Web-based applications to ensure fast, reliable and global distribution of media assets within their enterprises but also to partners, affiliates and other business outlets.
"In a business where time is of the essence, Akamai's unique ability to accelerate global application performance by up to 5 times provides companies like The NewsMarket with a distinct advantage in their services."
Further information is available at: www.akamai.com.
(KMcA)