U.S. Soccer Federation taps Limelight Networks

Limelight Networks, a leading content delivery network for digital media, today announced it has been selected as the exclusive provider of media streaming services for the U.S. Soccer Federation. U.S. Soccer, the governing body of soccer in the United States, will leverage Limelight’s Live Windows Media Streaming service to provide global delivery of a wide range of video content — including select matches of the U.S. Men’s and Women’s National Teams, and U.S. Soccer’s 11 Youth National Teams, as well as other informative and entertaining soccer-related content such as live pre- and post-game coverage, press conferences and breaking news.

“Soccer is getting more popular every year in the United States. We recognized that we needed a scalable and reliable Internet content delivery platform for streaming compelling soccer content — via our Web site ussoccer.com — to the growing ranks of fans,” said Jim Moorhouse, U.S. Soccer’s Director of Communications. “Limelight Networks has shown its ability to accommodate unexpected traffic surges and provide live content with a level of quality that these fans deserve — key factors in our decision to go with Limelight.”

U.S. Soccer will leverage the ability of Limelight’s Windows Media Streaming service to let viewers flexibly tune in to their programming via the expanding universe of broadband Internet-connected devices, including PCs, handheld devices, and IPTV set-top boxes. An important benefit of the Limelight platform is the insight its LUX reporting facility provides U.S. Soccer for measuring and maximizing the effectiveness of its Web content.

David Hatfield, senior vice president of worldwide sales, services and marketing at Limelight said, “U.S. Soccer exemplifies the trend where any organization or company now has the ability to directly reach its audience with high quality programming via the Internet. We are committed to providing the highly reliable, massively scalable live video streaming infrastructure that U.S. Soccer requires to deliver a compelling experience to a global audience of soccer enthusiasts.”