Akamai to Multicast NBA All-Star Game

Wade Roush2/13/08

New Englanders just want to forget the Super Bowl, but for local networking leader Akamai, it’s an experience worth repeating—or at least the live streaming Internet video aspects of it. The company said today that it will be the exclusive networking provider for Turner Sports’ live, online video coverage of the NBA All-Star game in New Orleans on Sunday, February 17, as well as the extensive pre-game hoopla already underway. During the game, the “TNT OverTime All-Star Access ” video player engineered by Akamai will allow users to choose from mutiple live video streams, including “robo cams” attached to the backboards and a “cable cam” giving aerial views of the arena. Akamai says it’s “the first time fans can control what they want to watch during the All-Star Game.”

Wade Roush is Xconomy's chief correspondent and editor of Xconomy San Francisco. You can e-mail him at wroush@xconomy.com or follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/wroush.