Live streaming of Rupert and James Murdoch giving evidence at the Leveson Inquiry this week reached 2,336,367 people across 215 countries. Rightster delivered the ITN Productions live stream across ITN’s network of sites including Mail Online, The Guardian, ITN and Facebook. The peak viewing time on Wednesday 25 April, the first day of Rupert Murdoch’s appearance, was at 12.00pm when the number of people streaming the footage reached 609, 328. The spike on the second day of Murdoch’s appearance occurred at 11.00am and was watched by 580,806 viewers, during The Guardian’s 2009 revelations that phone hacking was more widespread and at the time when Murdoch quoted: “The police totally disowned it, said it was wrong.” The figures from Rightster, the cloud-based rights and distribution technology company, show that more people watched the live stream of this week’s appearances than during Rupert and James Murdoch’s appearance at the Culture, Media and Sport select committee last year. Mark Browning, managing director of ITN Productions commented: “These figures reflect the public’s interest in the events taking place at the Leveson Inquiry and how the Murdochs’ appearances have dominated the news agenda in recent days. The popularity of the live stream also shows that there is a real opportunity for online publishers to incorporate live video of major events alongside comment, analysis and live blogs to enhance their online content.” Rightster’s Founder and CEO, Charlie Muirhead commented: “Today’s population cares more than ever before about being as up to date as possible with breaking news. Online video streaming across multi-platforms and devices not only gives the public access to events as and when they happen but provides content producers with a reach and digital engagement with their audience that was unimaginable just a few years ago.” www.rightster.com
