Live Earth breaks video streaming records (UK "Guardian")

[KoKo]

Live Earth breaks video streaming records


Jemima Kiss
Monday July 9, 2007
MediaGuardian.co.uk


Saturday's Live Earth concerts have set new records for live online video streams, serving more than 10 million video feeds globally through Microsoft's content portal MSN.

A bespoke site, sponsored by US car giant Chevy, provided streamed footage from 150 artists at Live Earth events around the world including Madonna, The Police and Jack Johnson.

An MSN spokesperson said the concert had generated "the most simultaneous views of any online concert ever", as of 3pm (EDT) on Saturday, or 8pm in London.

Viewers could watch the concert live for free via MSN, or select artists and bands to catch up with after the live broadcast.

The total number of streams is expected to continue to grow rapidly for the next few weeks as more people access the concerts on demand.

Live Earth's 24-hour sequence of concerts to raise awareness of the climate change crisis were broadcast from New York, London, Sydney and five other international locations, and also featured celebrity endorsements from Cameron Diaz, George Clooney, Sienna Miller and environmental campaigner Al Gore.

The live UK TV broadcast on BBC1 and BBC2 did not perform that well, peaking at just 4.5 million viewers or a 25% audience share. Last Sunday's Concert for Diana attracted a peak of 14.8 million viewers.

Two years ago, the Live 8 event set the previous record for the most streams, registering 5 million unique users on the day of the concert in early July 2005.

http://media.guardian.co.uk/newmedia/story/0,,2122165,00.html