Hotstar, Akamai claim online streaming record
May 24, 2018
Indian premium streaming platform Hotstar, together with cloud delivery platform specialist Akamai Technologies, are claiming streaming history on May 22nd during the first qualifier match of cricket’s VIVO IPL 2018.
The match between Sunrisers Hyderabad and Chennai Super Kings attracted an unprecedented 8.26 million peak concurrent viewers tuning in simultaneously to witness the match’s conclusion, breaking all previous records in online video streaming. Over four hours, more than 26 million viewers tuned into Hotstar to watch the match.
The previous record is believed to have been established by YouTube when Felix Baumgartner’s space jump in 2012 saw a peak of just over 8 million concurrent viewers tuning in to watch the event.
“Four years ago, when we started streaming IPL, 8 million viewers would have been a big deal for the whole tournament,” noted Ajit Mohan, CEO, Hotstar. “Crossing 8 million simultaneous users is a testimony to the power of VIVO IPL and evidence of the abiding passion of cricket fans. It is not just about the scale, however. It is about reinventing the sports experience online and constantly raising the bar. Our objective is to create the future of social TV. And we are proud that the tech that we are building is expanding the frontiers of online video.”
“Over the past year and a half, Hotstar has broken several online viewing records at the regional level,” added Parimal Pandya, Vice President, Media, APJ, Akamai Technologies. “A contributing factor was technology from Akamai playing a role in bringing down the latency drastically, so users can enjoy the live action almost as well as people watching it on their television. This is a clear indicator of the fact that, driven by technology from Akamai, live sporting action can be enjoyed on a smartphone which is the new frontier for audience engagement and growth.”