NBC’s Live Earth Special Fails to Impress
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NBC’s three-hour Live Earth primetime special, which included highlights from Saturday’s global concerts, failed to generate much enthusiasm in the ratings.
The estimated 2.7 million viewers were slightly less than the 3 million NBC would average on a normal Saturday night in the summer with repeats on what already is the least-popular night of television.
It was less successful than what MSN experienced online for Live Earth. MSN said Monday that more than 8 million users streamed 15.4 million videos of Live Earth on MSN live. That’s ahead of the 5 million people who watched 2005′s Live 8 concert via AOL.
Ratings for individual cable networks weren’t available until today, but Nielsen Media Research said Monday that 19 million people tuned in to at least six minutes of the telecasts on NBC, Bravo, Sundance or the other NBC Universal channels that were involved in Sunday’s telecast.
NBC’s telecast performed below the Live 8 concert two years ago, according to preliminary estimates by Nielsen Media Research.
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The three-hour concert special from Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., drew a 0.9 rating/3 share in adults 18-49 — the same as a typical summer Saturday after Memorial Day.
The special on NBC also was a little less than ABC’s primetime coverage of the Live 8 concert on July 2, 2005. Live 8 averaged 2.9 million viewers and a 1.0 rating/5 share in adults 18-49.
In all, users streamed 30 million videos of Live Earth concert footage on MSN live and on-demand as of Monday morning, said Rob Bennett, GM of entertainment, video and sports at MSN.
Bennett also said that with 237,000 users logged on around midday Saturday, MSN’s Live Earth webcast broke the record for most simultaneous viewers of an online entertainment event. The previous record was 175,000 streaming users for Live 8 on AOL.