Akamai Delivers Internet Content for Artisan Entertainment's Mystifying "Blair Witch" Web Site.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--September 2, 1999--

Artisan's thriving Web campaign supports

huge Internet audience with the help of Akamai network

Akamai Technologies, which operates a global Internet content delivery service that speeds up Web performance, announced today that it enabled Artisan Entertainment in the delivery of Internet content for its immensely popular Blair Witch Web site (www.blairwitch.com). The Blair Witch Project is one of this summer's top grossing films due in part to its successful marketing via the Web. To keep up with the high amounts of traffic to the Web site, Artisan Entertainment utilized Akamai's network to maintain quick and reliable delivery of the site's unique contents including photos, storyboards and graphics.

The content-rich Web site, which depicts photos of locations within the Maryland woods, missing persons' posters, interviews with local townsfolk, and candid shots of the ill-fated filmmakers, attracted millions of visitors in July and August. Before working with Akamai, Artisan was equipped to support about 30 hits per second to the site. Increasing interest in the film drove the number of visitors to an overwhelming level, impacting the site's ability to handle the crowds. After Artisan implemented Akamai's service, performance on www.blairwitch.com immediately improved to meet the daily peaks of demands, delivering as much as 600 hits per second.

"Our use of the Internet to build awareness for this film has definitely paid off," said John Hegeman, Artisan's executive vice president of worldwide marketing. "As one of our primary means for marketing the film, Artisan could not afford to be bottlenecked by the slow delivery of content on our Web site. Akamai ensured that visitors to the site could experience the chilling story of the Blair Witch."

Since selecting Akamai for its Internet content delivery, Artisan has served millions of visitors each day at www.blairwitch.com. In early August, as the film generated national exposure, the Web site was averaging over 30 million hits per day. Akamai's network has been instrumental in enabling the Blair Witch Web site to continue to add more and different content each day as Internet viewers looked to follow along with the evolving story.

"Akamai's service was a very important element to keeping our site running smoothly," said Leo Collins, CIO for Artisan. "Millions of viewers were accessing the site every day. Akamai's network, customer support and professionalism made the difference in how quickly we could adjust to this rising demand without compromising the content. As a result, our presence on the Web continues to drive viewers into the theaters."

About Artisan Entertainment Inc.

Artisan is a diversified entertainment company that specializes in the development, production, acquisition, marketing and worldwide distribution of quality feature-length motion pictures. The company has secured a major pay-TV deal with Showtime Networks; an output deal with Hallmark Entertainment, which covers all Hallmark, Crayola and Cabin Fever product; a distribution deal with The Shooting Gallery for its film product in all media; the purchase of an equity stake in Summit Entertainment; and an output deal with Alliance in Canada. Artisan is comprised of four key groups: Artisan Pictures Inc., Artisan Home Entertainment Inc., Artisan Television and Artisan International. Artisan Entertainment Inc. controls a library of more than 6,300 titles which include Terminator 2: Judgement Day, Reservoir Dogs, Dirty Dancing, Total Recall, The Piano and the successful Rambo series of films, as well as a library of widely recognized children*s programming under its Family Home Entertainment brand. The company maintains offices in Los Angeles, New York and Dallas.

About Akamai

Akamai Technologies is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Akamai provides a global Internet content delivery service that improves Web site speed and reliability and protects against Web site crashes due to demand overloads. Currently, Akamai has 900 servers deployed in 15 countries across 25 telecommunications networks, providing Akamai's customers with guaranteed global Internet content delivery service. Akamai (pronounced AH kuh my) is Hawaiian for intelligent, clever and cool.