Akamai Enables High-Quality Delivery of New Line Cinemas' "The Lord of the Rings" Preview Footage for Record Internet Audience

Business Wire, April 18, 2000

Business & Technology Editors

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 18, 2000

www.lordoftherings.net attracts record traffic;

6.6 million downloads in first week

Akamai Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: AKAM), the leading provider of global, high performance services for the delivery of Internet content, streaming media, and applications, today announced that New Line Cinemas' release of "The Lord of the Rings" Internet movie 'behind-the-scenes' footage has become one of the Internet's largest entertainment events ever. As measured by Akamai's advanced real-time Internet monitoring tools, "The Lord of the Rings" preview footage achieved a historic one-week total of more than 6.6 million downloads since becoming available on Friday, April 7.

Available exclusively in Apple's QuickTime format, the delivery of the preview was handled by Akamai's revolutionary FreeFlow SM Streaming service to dramatically improve the reliability and quality of the downloadable content. During the preview's first week of availability, Akamai's global network served a total of 8.45 terabytes of data. At the peak, Akamai's network supported 450 Megabits of data per second, serving every Web user with high quality and reliable delivery of the rich and engaging movie footage.

"Without Akamai's over 2,700 servers, we would not have been able to satisfy the overwhelming demand to see this behind-the-scenes footage of The Lord of the Rings," said Joe Nimziki, President of New Line Marketing. "We are grateful that Akamai marshaled the technical resources necessary to help us pull off this record-breaking marketing coup."

"Together with Apple, we would like to congratulate New Line Cinemas on their very successful online preview of 'The Lord of the Rings,'" said Dan Fraisl, vice president and general manager of streaming, Akamai. "Recognized as one of the largest downloads of content to date, this movie footage again showcases the global scalability of Akamai's network and its ability to enable high-quality delivery of rich media to the Web's largest audiences."

"QuickTime is the standard for streaming audio and video on the Internet," said Philip Schiller Apple's vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. "With the success of the new 'Lord of the Rings' preview footage, the QuickTime Movie Trailer site continues to set Internet attendance records." The QuickTime 4 player is available as a free download for Macintosh and Windows users from www.apple.com/quicktime. To view the Lord of the Rings movie preview, users simply need to point their browser to www.apple.com/trailers or www.lordoftherings.net.

Akamai's FreeFlow Streaming service, delivered from the Akamai EdgeAdvantage(TM) platform, exceeds user expectations by delivering high-quality and reliable streaming media content including live events, continuous broadcasts and on-demand media. Akamai's EdgeAdvantage technology delivers content by intelligently routing requests across its distributed global network to the optimal server for each site visitor. EdgeAdvantage evaluates real-time Internet conditions, thus eliminating problems caused by server overloads and network bottlenecks.

"The Lord of the Rings" movie preview can be seen at www.lordoftherings.net. One of the most celebrated novels of the 20th Century, The Lord of the Rings is a groundbreaking epic of good versus evil, extraordinary heroes, wondrous creatures and dark armies of terror. Generations of more than 50 million people around the globe, in 25 different languages have grown up with this epic history. The legend has inspired an entire genre of movies, fiction, and has influenced some of the greatest artists of our time. It has made dreamers out of children and adults, and has recently been named the number one most popular book of the century. But it has never been told in its entirety on the screen.

New Line anticipates releasing the first installment of the trilogy of movies for The Lord of the Rings Holiday 2001.

About New Line Cinema

Founded in 1967, New Line Cinema is the entertainment industry's leading independent producer and distributor of theatrical motion pictures. New Line licenses its films to ancillary markets including cable and broadcast television as well as to international venues. The company, which is a subsidiary of Time Warner Inc., operates several divisions including in-house theatrical distribution, marketing, home video, television, acquisitions, production, licensing and merchandising units.

About Akamai

Akamai Technologies is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts and has offices in San Mateo and Cupertino, California, and Europe. Akamai is the leading provider of distributed content, streaming media, and applications delivery services, serving over 550 of the Web's most popular properties including over 125 leading e-commerce companies. Akamai has deployed the broadest global network for content, streaming media, and applications delivery with more than 2,750 servers in over 45 countries directly connected to more than 150 different telecommunications networks. Akamai (pronounced AH kuh my) is Hawaiian for intelligent, clever and cool.