TEMPE, Ariz., Oct. 16 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Limelight Networks, Inc.
(Nasdaq: LLNW) today marked the beginning of the 'broadcast quantity' era for
content delivery networks with the announcement that the company's global
content delivery capacity has exceeded two terabits per second (Tbps).
The announcement was made at the Digital Media Innovation Forum,
15-17 October, Phoenix, AZ.
Two terabits per second is roughly the raw capacity required to deliver
content to the equivalent of four Nielsen ratings points of audience.* Even
taking network overhead into account, this milestone means Limelight's
capacity could support delivering broadcast-quality content to over two
million simultaneous Internet users.
A 'broadcast quantity' CDN meets the challenge of maintaining high-
fidelity for every piece of content delivered, even as the audience that could
potentially view that content grows significantly. Recently, comScore
reported that more than 142 million U.S. Internet users watched 11.4 billion
videos for a total duration of 558 million hours during July 2008,** and 27.4
million U.K. Internet users watched 3.2 billion videos for an average of 117.7
videos per viewer during June 2008.***
"As global traffic and audience numbers continue to grow, the challenge
for delivery networks has changed from delivering a single piece of content to
an audience of millions, to simultaneously delivering a million different
pieces of content to a million different viewers. Viewers' expectations are
defined by their experience from broadcast TV, so delivery networks are being
called on to deliver ever higher levels of visual fidelity. These services are
more engaging for viewers, and this in turn helps monetize the content," said
Jim Davis, senior analyst, Tier 1 Research.
Limelight Networks' unique approach to maximizing the delivery of content
is to store a publisher's entire content library logically close to the end
user, so content is delivered without traversing the congested public
Internet. This is accomplished by directly connecting over eight petabytes of
storage to over 900 last mile access networks, through a fiber-optical
connection maintained by the company. The end result is a brilliant user
experience for every element of content delivered.
"This milestone of two terabits per second of network capacity represents
the beginning of a new era in the content delivery industry. While Limelight
Networks' architecture has always ensured a broadcast quality experience,
today's milestone demonstrates that we can deliver broadcast quantity
entertainment -- thousands of programs to global Internet audiences that are
measurable in Nielson ratings points," said Nathan Raciborski, chief technical
officer, Limelight Networks. "As more viewers use the web as a primary
entertainment vehicle, we will continue to scale and expand our architecture
to ensure these broadcast quantity audiences receive engaging, high-quality
experiences."
For over seven years, the Limelight Networks content delivery service has
powered some of the largest and most complex events in the history of the
Internet. From supporting hundreds of thousands of simultaneous users for
Oprah's online book club, to delivering over 70 million video streams for
NBCOlympics.com on MSN, to enabling interactive content and game downloads for
each of the three major gaming console manufacturers, Limelight has
consistently delivered content in the brilliance the publisher intended it to
be seen.
About Limelight Networks, Inc.
Limelight Networks, Inc. (Nasdaq: LLNW) is a content delivery partner
enabling the next wave of Internet business and entertainment. More than 1300
Internet, entertainment, software, and technology brands trust our robust,
scalable platform to monetize their digital assets by delivering a brilliant
online experience to their global audience. Our architecture bypasses the busy
public Internet using a dedicated optical network that interconnects thousands
of servers and delivers massive files at the speed of light -- directly to the
access networks that consumers use every day. Our proven network and passion
for service provides our customers confidence that every object in their
library will be delivered to every user, every time. Read our blog at
http://blog.llnw.com or visit http://www.limelightnetworks.com for more
information.
* Assumes 1,128,000 U.S. households equals one ratings point and the
average bit rate of a delivered stream at 500 Kbps
** Source: September 10, 2008 comScore press release titled "YouTube
Draws 5 Billion U.S. Online Video Views in July 2008"
*** Source: September 16, 2008 comScore press release titled "27 Million
People Watched More Than 3 Billion Videos Online in the U.K. in
June 2008"
Copyright (C) 2008 Limelight Networks, Inc. All rights reserved. All
product or service names are the property of their respective owners
SOURCE Limelight Networks, Inc.
Contact: Paul Alfieri of Limelight Networks, Inc., +1-917-297-4241, palfieri@llnw.com