(Source: Business Wire)Akamai Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: AKAM), the leader in powering video, dynamic transactions and enterprise applications online, announced that Akamai HD Media Analytics, a highly flexible, customizable solution to understand audience characteristics and content consumption, is proving to be a valuable business tool for content providers. A key component of Akamai's HD Network, Akamai HD Media Analytics provides content and audience intelligence for multiple playback environments, including Adobe® Flash®, Microsoft Silverlight, and the iPhone, in one unified solution.

"For Media & Entertainment companies, understanding the audience and their viewing habits is critical to running their business. Getting the right metrics, in the right context quickly allows programmers to ensure they provide the most effective content, to the most interested audience. Akamai's HD Media Analytics solution offers key statistics around audience engagement, with a richer set of context around content and how it is being used," said Tim Napoleon, Chief Strategist, Digital Media at Akamai. "The Akamai HD Network brings analytics and delivery needs together to give publishers meaningful insight into the performance of their media products in the context of their own businesses."

Whereas typical media reporting is very consumption focused, such as how many bytes were delivered or how much traffic on aggregate is being serviced, Akamai HD Media Analytics is designed to allow programmers to customize their reports with business parameters so they can look at more business relevant data such as total hours of video viewed, number of unique visitors by program or channel, and even how that breaks down by geography.

Akamai is working with leading global broadcasters, publishers and music companies for whom gaining visibility into the performance of online media offerings is critical. Akamai's Media Analytics solution is intended to enable these companies to gain deep insight into their audiences -- what they are watching, for how long and from where, and therefore make smarter business decisions about programming and better monetize site properties. Current customers include BBC World Service and PointRoll, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Gannett Co. Inc. (NYSE: GCI) and the leading rich media advertising provider.

"Akamai's HD Media Analytics solution offers us deeper analysis into our live broadcasts," said Karl Kathuria, Head of Digital Delivery, BBC World Service. "We can now get almost real-time insight into our broadcasts to track how our audience engages with our content.