Posted on 01/23/2017 2:12:17 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
Though some cried while others cheered, both sides tuned into to watch President Trump’s inauguration in sizable numbers – record-breaking numbers, in fact. The event has broken new ground, becoming the largest, single live news event that content delivery network Akamai has ever hosted, the company says, following an analysis of its live video data.
According to Akamai, live video streaming of the inauguration peaked at 8.7 Tbps at 12:04 ET during the opening of President Trump’s speech, up from 7.9 Tbps at the start of the inaugural oath. This surpassed the previous record of 7.5 Tbps, which was achieved on Election Day (Nov. 8, 2016) during the evening.
That’s not all that surprising of course. Trump’s inauguration was a mid-day event, meaning many were likely watching from computers at work or were live streaming the news via their mobile devices. Election Day live streams may have peaked in the evening, but many people were home and watching on their TVs during this time, which could have impacted the numbers.
Akamai tries to give this new record some historical context by comparing it to the 2009 inauguration, which reached 1.1 Tbps, and the 2011 Royal Wedding, which hit 1.3 Tbps. However, looking at live video data from several years ago isn’t a viable comparison.
So much has changed in the time since, including the rise of HD video streaming, which demands higher bitrates, and an increased number of live video viewers.
The latter can be attributed to many factors – the near-ubiquity of mobile devices and increases in broadband speeds and mobile broadband. For example, the average connection speed in the U.S. during the ’09 inauguration was 4.1 Mbps. As of Akamai’s Q3 2016 State of the Internet Report, it’s 15.2 Mbps.
Plus, there are now more video sites and services where people can watch such content. This ties into the larger cord cutting trend which sees people shifting away from traditional TV viewing and spending more time online.
However, when comparing the inauguration with other more recent events, it still came out on top. For example, the 2016 Euro soccer tournament final peaked at 7.3 Tbps and the Rio women’s team gymnastics final hit 4.5 Tbps.
“The presidential inauguration is the latest in a series of record-breaking live, online video streaming events that we have supported over the last year,” said Bill Wheaton, Executive Vice President and General Manager of Media at Akamai, in a statement. “More people than ever are watching video online, and it’s being done across more devices at increasingly higher levels of quality.”
As one of the world’s largest content delivery network (CDN) service providers, Akamai has insight into live video trends like these. Its customers include over 15 of the world’s largest broadcasters, who use its service for live streaming. In other words, if something breaks records on its network, it’s fair to say it was a significant event.
As Akamai also pointed out, during the presidential inauguration, media and entertainment and broadcast traffic to U.S. users was around 6.4 times higher than the same time during the previous two days.
But as Wheaton’s above note implies, Trump’s inauguration speaks more to the growing trend of live video consumption, rather some indication of the president’s popularity as compared with others. It does, however, speak to the newsworthiness of the event itself, given that record viewership numbers means people on both sides of the table were live streaming – not just Trump supporters.
It was Yuge, I tell ya, YUUUUUGGEEEE!!!!!!!!
Suck on that...See BS “news”!
I was streaming at a trade show and had 15-20 people in my booth the whole time.
Naw, it’s lies! All lies. Just ask Jim Acosta.
At one point, the RSBN Youtube video stream had just over 171k viewers. I think it was during the parade from the Capitol in the afternoon.
CSPAN supposedly does not make viewership counts. They had both cable and streaming.
Everyone in my office watched it on one big screen streaming through the google link.
We watched the day from 10 am til 11:45 pm. Fox, ABC primarily
First time I’ve ever watched anything but a few excerpts.
Couldn’t get enough.
BTW, that pic the MSM is hawking of the Trump crowd was taken around 10 am. I remember.
bookmark for inaugural online viewing data.
“President Trump” ~ has a special ring to it, doesn’t it ?!!!
You mean
.
.
YUUUUUGGEEEE!!!!!!!!
I’m 57 years old. This is the second inauguration I have ever watched and I watched it for hours.
I’ll be 57 in 12 more days and this is the first I watched more than a few minutes of. The cannons they used for the 21 gun salute look exactly like the ones at Nixon’s.
I’m 56, and I can’t remember ever watching an inauguration live. I think I listened to Reagans and Obamas on Radio. This was a first for me, and I loved it. His speech was like a breath of fresh air. Thank God he won.
John Karl, who has been busy selling a seven layer photo shop BC for the last five years was not impressed with the numbers.
I tuned in Fox but muted it, and listened to Rush streaming the event and commenting on it.
I was at work so used my iPad. I tried to stream it on cspan but it kept buffering and dropping. They may not have user counts because they were too many to count! I switched to a local television station’s stream and was fine.
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