Clear Channel Online Music & Radio Chooses Akamai Technologies to Deliver Streaming Content to Almost Eight Million Listeners and Viewers Each Month
Akamai Will Enable High-Quality On-Demand Viewing and Listening, Including Faster Downloads and Crisper, Smoother Streams
NEW YORK, NY and CAMBRIDGE, MA - NOVEMBER 1, 2005 - Clear Channel Radio's Online Music & Radio unit today announced it has chosen Akamai Technologies, Inc., the leading global service provider for accelerating content and business processes online, as its exclusive provider of Internet streaming services to deliver on-demand streaming content to the company's online audience of almost eight million users per month.
Akamai will ultimately support the streaming activities of Clear Channel Radio's nationwide network of approximately 1,200 radio-station Web sites. More than 400 of these sites are streaming live online.
"Our audience is growing much more rapidly than we expected, yet their expectations for high-quality programming that downloads quickly and streams smoothly only goes up," said Gerrit Meier, senior vice president and general manager of Clear Channel Radio's Online Music & Radio unit. "We need a reliable and efficient backbone. Using different vendors across different markets added complexity and back-end resources that we no longer wanted to deal with. Akamai's on-demand platform is critical to delivering a high-quality streaming service for our listeners and viewers - and allows us to streamline operations and costs while continuing to accelerate our development of unique and diverse programming."
Clear Channel Radio's Online Music & Radio audience has swelled in 2005 from 5.9 million unique listeners and viewers per month to almost 8 million now. In addition, the average time each person spends listening to the company's streaming broadcasts has increased almost 70% to more than 9.5 hours per week.
"With the growing popularity of an ever-expanding portfolio of on-demand programming, Clear Channel Radio needed a distribution platform to support their millions of listeners nationwide," said Robert Hughes, executive vice president, Global Sales and Services at Akamai. "Akamai's proven expertise with some of the largest global media and entertainment companies enables us to offer Clear Channel the streaming capabilities to offer an outstanding online viewing and listening experience."
Clear Channel Online Music & Radio ranks among the top three online music and video content providers according to comScore/Arbitron ratings.
About Akamai
Akamai (NASDAQ: AKAM), is the leading global service provider for accelerating content and business processes online. More than 1,800 organizations have formed trusted relationships with Akamai, improving their revenue and reducing costs by maximizing the performance of their online businesses. Leveraging the Akamai EdgePlatform, these organizations gain business advantage today, and have the foundation for the emerging Web solutions of tomorrow. Akamai is "The Trusted Choice for Online Business." For more information, visit www.akamai.com.
About Clear Channel Online Music & Radio
A division of Clear Channel Radio, this unit is focused on bringing terrestrial radio listeners online to the Web sites of the company's network of approximately 1,200 radio stations. Nearly eight million unique visitors per month choose Clear Channel Radio's online and on-demand music programming, which now includes videos of signature in-studio performances as well as live concerts, exclusive access to new releases and a full podcast roster of top-rated radio segments. More than 400 Clear Channel Radio station Web sites, including all of the company's stations in the top 25 markets, stream terrestrial broadcasts online. Over 700 Clear Channel Radio station sites are live with redesigned interfaces, extending to the Internet, the company's focus on improving the value of radio through less clutter.
About Clear Channel Radio
Clear Channel Radio is a leading radio company focused on serving local communities across the U.S. with more than 110 million listeners choosing Clear Channel Radio programming each week. The company's operations include radio broadcasting, syndication and independent media representation. Clear Channel Radio is a division of Clear Channel Communications, Inc. (NYSE:CCU), a leading global media and entertainment company. More information on the company can be found at www.clearchannel.com.
Source: Akamai
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