Akamai CEO: consumer ability to watch HD Web content to rise

NEW YORK—Consumers' access to sufficient bandwidth for watching high-definition Web-based content like videos will increase in the next several years, Akamai Technologies Inc. Chief Executive Paul Sagan said Thursday.

Speaking at a Merrill Lynch & Co. technology conference in New York, Sagan noted in a webcast of the event that consumers are beginning to see the capability of viewing high-definition video over the Internet.

This is "important because that's the standard that people are getting used to in their living room, (with) a big-screen TV," he said.

The biggest challenge in the move toward watching such rich media is proper bandwidth access, he said, not issues related to things like content rights.

The number of people who currently have enough bandwidth to watch such content "is very small," he said, "So the excitement there is that's going to grow over the next five years."

Shares of Akamai, which provides services for delivering content over the Web, rose 53 cents to close at $36.84.