World Cup drives Akamai's heaviest traffic ever

According to Akamai, the content delivery network provider that provided backhaul of video feeds from South Africa, the 2010 World Cup was the largest globally consumed sporting event seen on the company’s platform to date.

Daily World Cup-related traffic on the Akamai network was consistently greater than 500Gb/s, with the highest peaks (during the workday) at nearly 1Tb/s of traffic, in addition to the content Akamai already delivers for its global customer base of more than 3000 companies. World Cup-related traffic to Akamai’s network peaked at 969Gb/s during the match between the United States and Slovenia in the tournament’s first week.

According to the company, Europe remained the highest global region consistently in terms of traffic, with the UK tending to be the biggest draw. There were equally strong viewing numbers on iPhones across Europe, with nearly a third of broadcasters offering portable viewing experiences.

To see the latest traffic to global broadcasters delivering live and on-demand content over Akamai’s network, Akamai’s World Cup data visualization tool.

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Adrian Pennington

Adrian Pennington is a journalist specialising in film and TV production. His work has appeared in The Guardian, RTS Television, Variety, British Cinematographer, Premiere and The Hollywood Reporter. Adrian has edited several publications, co-written a book on stereoscopic 3D and is copywriter of marketing materials for the industry. Follow him @pennington1