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Big Brother Draws Audiences Online

The popularity of the first episode of Channel 4’s Big Brother has been mirrored online, with figures showing that the reality TV show’s official website has become the most visited television website in the UK.
The latest data shows that www.channel4.com/bigbrother accounted for 13% of all visits to Hitwise’s television category, helping the sector to see traffic increase by 24% over the last week.
Almost 20% of visitors to the Big Brother website came from www.channel4.com, with 1.34% originating from www.o2.co.uk, which is the programme’s official sponsor for the second year running.
Around 18% of traffic leaving the Big Brother website went to www.real.co.uk, which is providing round the clock audio and video streaming from the Big Brother house.
According to Hitwise, reality TV fans spend an average of 6 minutes and 37 seconds navigating the Big Brother website, which offers users up to the minute news, profiles of the contestants and virtual tours of the house.
The twelve Big Brother contestants – which include former male model Frederico, nursery assistant Anouska and fashion graduate Sissy – are considerably younger than in previous years. This is reflected in the age profile of the Big Brother website, with 26% of visitors aged between 18 and 24%.
Last year research from Nielsen//NetRatings showed that online and broadcast platforms complimented each other in building up audience figures for Big Brother 2002 (see Big Brother’s Cross-Media Platforms Deliver Audience).
Hitwise: 020 7378 3600 www.hitwise.com
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