Last weekend’s Live Earth concerts might have been criticized for their green credentials, but there’s one way they were a huge winner. The nine concerts, inspired by former Vice President Al Gore, held in cities spanning the globe, drew a record 10 million video streams. Designed to raise awareness of climate change and global warming, concerts were held in New York, London, Sydney, Tokyo, Shanghai, Rio de Janeiro, Johannesburg, Hamburg, and elsewhere, with a lineup that included the re-formed Police, Genesis, Bon Jovi, Crowded House, Madonna, Kelly Clarkson, and Black Eyed Peas among hundreds of others. The shows were streamed online by MSN, which was the exclusive online media partner for the concerts. Of course, with names like those, it’s inevitable that the MSN streaming would draw high numbers, although no data has yet been released as to how long each user watched on average, or even whether the 10 million were unique users, or made up of people watching several streams simultaneously. Still, MSN was happy at the numbers, as well they might be. “History is being made today,” said Joanne Bradford, MSN’s corporate vice president and chief media officer. “The over 10 million streams MSN has delivered so far today represent a milestone in live Internet broadcasting.” And although the concerts might be history now, with the stages torn down and the artists far away in their private jets, MSN expects the footage to remain popular with on-demand viewing of both the streams and the artist interviews. The live streaming industry is still very much in its infancy, and this should give it a boost, according to some analysts.
