Hotstar, Akamai renew partnership to stream live Indian sport events

BENGALURU: India’s largest premium video streaming platform Hotstar and NASDAQ-listed Akamai Technologies Inc have announced the renewal of their partnership. Akamai will support Hotstar in delivering live sports content and the expected surge in viewership with the help of its Intelligent Platform.

The press release by Akamai says that since its launch in February 2015, Hotstar has seen a dramatic growth in viewership on the back of 65 million downloads and a content portfolio that covers local and international drama, movies and sports. Live sports in particular has seen a huge surge in viewership on Hotstar, especially as audiences turn to mobile as the primary screen for cricket updates and streaming.

The partnership between Hotstar and Akamai plans for an expected surge in viewership over the next 18 months, especially in light of the 2016 ICC World Twenty20 tournament in India, which saw a peak of 1.55 million concurrent video streams, and an average concurrency close to 350,000. The peak traffic for this event almost doubled from 655 Gbps in 2015 to 1.3 Tbps this year, highlighting the growing demand for live streaming online, across devices.

Star, a customer of Akamai since 2006, and Hotstar, an Akamai customer since its launch in February 2015, delivered more than 23 million hours of live sporting video over the course of the T20 World Cup, with the help of Akamai’s Media Delivery Solutions. The two companies are currently working to deliver the 2016 season of the Indian Premier League, which has also seen a surge in viewership over the last 2 years.

“The Internet has become an important source for accessing global sporting events, and Akamai has consistently helped deliver events of scale around the world. Hotstar is a valued partner for Akamai and one that is consistently setting new benchmarks in video streaming and live sports consumption in particular. We are extremely proud of this successful partnership,” said Parimal Pandya, Vice President, Media, APJ, Akamai Technologies.

“Since the launch of Hotstar in February 2015, we have seen a 10x increase in online viewership for sporting events. Planning for concurrency in live sports is a big part of delivering an outstanding uninterrupted experience for our users and Akamai has been an instrumental partner in helping us scale numbers that are very rarely seen online globally,” said Ajit Mohan, CEO, Hotstar.

As Hotstar continues to develop and bring to market  events, including movie premieres and live sports such as the ongoing Indian Premier League and the upcoming 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio, the two companies are working together to introduce new features and innovations on the video streaming front.