Wednesday, May 04, 2011

Millions watch internet news video of Bin Laden’s demise

Internet video no longer plays “second fiddle” to television when it comes to broadcasting international news like the shooting of Osama Bin Laden, according to Stephen McCluskey, top online video marketing strategist and CEO of the UK’s leading professional online video platform, vzaar.

During the past week millions have followed major world events via online video – Britain’s Royal Wedding was watched by an estimated 400-million, while almost as many sought out news websites and clicked eagerly on related video as news broke of the shooting of Bin Laden, “most wanted” terrorist leader.

Mr McCluskey says content delivery network Akamai reported that during the night after the story broke of Bin Laden’s death there were more than 4.1 million page views per minute on news sites around the world.

“Indeed, internet video even plays a part in the news, besides just reporting it,” says Mr McCluskey. “President Obama and his officials in the White House reportedly watched the raid on Bin Laden’s Pakistan compound on a large screen, transmitted from a wireless video camera installed on the helmet of a Navy Seal.”

“There is a feverish hunger out there for seeing the real thing when it comes to international events – the children of the information age are no longer satisfied with static pictures and text on websites.”

Mr McCluskey believes live internet streaming and video on news sites offers a new dimension to the way the media reports international events – just as online video has revolutionised the way businesses of all sizes market and advertise their goods and services on the Internet.

“There is television, of course, which allows us to see what’s going on – but the added value of seeing events via internet video is that it is embedded in a webpage with access to complementary information and commentary, and in most cases a forum for immediately sharing our thoughts and views on what we are watching with others.”

“It’s a clear trend – more people than ever watch the events of the world from their computer screens, not their television. With this huge demographic shift to video hosting, smart businesses and news providers must take steps to ensure that the videos they host are high quality,” said Mr McCluskey, whose company, vzaar, offers the world’s leading easy-to-use, feature-rich and high quality video delivery platform, used by top clients such as the Press Association.

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