Chilean Miner Rescue Becomes Most-Watched Ustream Event Ever

Jason Kincaid

Jason Kincaid worked as a writer for TechCrunch from April 2008 through 2012. He grew up in Danville, California and later relocated to UCLA in Los Angeles, California, where he studied biology with a minor in ‘Society and Genetics’. You can reach him at jkincaid@gmail.com → Learn More

Wednesday, October 13th, 2010

By now you’ve doubtless heard about the ongoing rescue of 33 Chilean miners, who have been tragically trapped 2,000 feet underground since August 5. After months of waiting, the miners are being rescued one by one (as of this writing three are still below ground), and media organizations are broadcasting the footage of the recue effort live to a reported 1 billion people.  That massive worldwide audience has led to some new records for live-streaming service Ustream, which has been broadcasting feeds from media organizations around the world.

Ustream says that it has served 5.3 million streams over the course of the rescue, tallying figures between 4AM October 11 until 4AM this morning (given the fact that the rescue is still going on, the final count will be significantly higher). In contrast, the two previous record holders — Michael Jackson’s memorial and President Obama’s inauguration — drew 4.6 million and 3.8 million total streams, respectively, which makes this Ustream’s most-watched event ever. To be fair though, the mining rescue operation has spanned a longer period of time than those events, so this isn’t an apples-to-apples comparison.

Other sites are seeing similarly high traffic: CNN reports that it saw 1.2 million live video streams on Tuesday and over 2 million live video streams on Wednesday, though that isn’t a new record for the site — it had a whopping 26.9 million streams during the Obama inauguration.

Company: Ustream
Website: ustream.tv
Launch Date: June 11, 2006
Funding: $88M

Ustream is the pioneer in live social video streaming, boasting the largest global community with more than 80 million viewers and broadcasters. The company’s innovative cloud technology enables anyone – from entertainers to consumers, to companies to non-profit organizations – to easily connect and broadcast in real-time. Founded in 2007, Ustream is a San Francisco-based company that has grown to more than 160 employees within their San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Budapest offices. Company partners include Panasonic, Samsung, Logitech,...

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