Case Study: Canadian Broadcast Corporation (CBC) achieves on-demand scaling for massive traffic spikes with Akamai Technologies

Canadian Broadcast Corporation (CBC) Scales On Demand With Akamai

The Canadian Broadcast Corporation (CBC), Canada’s national broadcaster and largest journalistic organization, needed to ensure its huge website and growing streaming offerings stayed available during breaking news, major sports and entertainment events. Their existing infrastructure couldn’t handle flash crowds and surges in traffic, leaving availability and audience engagement at risk.

After evaluating vendors, CBC partnered with Akamai to scale on demand and avoid costly, idle infrastructure. Akamai restored service within an hour during 9/11, handled more than 1 Gbps during the federal election, supported 19 million visits and 117 million views in the first 11 days of the Athens Olympics (with an 18 million‑view single day peak in 2004), and enabled interactive programs like “Test the Nation” to handle millions of hits cost‑effectively.

CBC

Martin Delisle

Director of Production & Operations