Live8 Sparks Surge Of Online Interest
Saturday’s Live8 concert generated a huge spike of online interest, according to Nielsen//NetRatings, with visitors to the charity’s official site numbering 707,365 from the UK alone on the day of the concert itself.
The new figures, provided by the internet measurement specialist’s NetView service, show UK visitors viewing over 8.75 million pages of content on the site on Saturday, peaking after a build up of traffic to the site throughout June.
Saturday’s activity represents the site’s largest number of visitors to date, with at least ten times the audience of the previous busiest day.
Other countries saw a similar surge in online interest, with Germany seeing 207,757 people visiting the site on Saturday. France saw 62,184 visit on the day, while 53,110 users from Italy logged on in the same period. In the US 318,275 internet users visited the site.
In all cases, the audience represents a significant increase on daily audience figures in the run up to the event of at least five times.
In Australia most people went to the site on 3rd July, due to the time difference, with 88,579 unique visitors using the website on Sunday, compared to 40,173 on Saturday.
The extraordinary attention from music fans worldwide has boosted event sponsor, AOL, which also held the online broadcast rights.
“It was a defining moment for the medium – a tipping point,” explained Bill Wilson, AOL’s senior vice-president for programming.
The event’s concerts are now available in full through the AOL website, with the company hoping the attention will turn its free portal site into a viable ad-funded offering.
Over five million people watched the Live8 concerts via AOL’s online service, with 175,000 simultaneous video streams demanded from the company’s servers at any one time.
Last week saw British internet and on-demand TV provider, HomeChoice, donate free internet connections to the concert in London’s Hyde Park, ensuring that vital connectivity was available when required and that the event went as smoothly as possible (see HomeChoice Links Live8 With Free BroadBand).
AOL: 01268 530919 www.aol.co.uk Live8: www.live8live.com