Streaming technology isn’t just about speed and reliability—it’s also about economics. For media companies, the ability to monetize content efficiently can make or break the business model. Akamai and Harmonic are addressing this head-on.

Choice and Interactivity as Revenue Drivers

Ari Weil, VP of Product Marketing at Akamai, emphasized that revenue opportunities start with choice. “It comes down to choice: the choice of your streaming provider, delivery network, and how you optimize,” he explained. By combining Harmonic’s capabilities with Akamai’s low-cost, low-latency infrastructure, providers can not only deliver large global events but also experiment with new engagement models.

Weil highlighted the potential of interactive media—watch parties, live chat, even live commerce. By deploying compute resources alongside streams, providers can enable customers to engage more deeply than simply watching, creating avenues for new revenue streams.

Distributed Cloud and Ad Insertion

Jean Macher, Sr. Director of Global SaaS Solutions at Harmonic, pointed to two concrete examples. First is primary distribution: traditionally reliant on satellite and fiber, now increasingly handled via the cloud. With Akamai’s global footprint, content providers can deliver feeds closer to the source and destination, improving quality while reducing reliance on unmanaged public internet paths.

The second example is ad insertion at scale. “It’s very important because you have that one-on-one connection with every single viewer,” Macher said. Harmonic’s VOS360 Ad, deployed closer to the edge on Akamai’s distributed cloud, ensures ad delivery remains scalable and efficient—directly supporting monetization strategies.

Together, these innovations show that performance, cost efficiency, and revenue growth are deeply linked. For content creators and service providers, Akamai and Harmonic’s partnership is a blueprint for streaming’s financial future.