MSN declared itself the new record holder for the biggest online entertainment audience, reporting more than 10 million streams Saturday for its coverage of Live Earth. The Microsoft-owned portal also claimed to have reached "the most simultaneous viewers of any online concert ever," but declined to specify a specific total. Streams do not equal viewers, just the number of requests made for a video feed.
The previous record holder for live entertainment was coverage of the Live 8 concerts two years ago by AOL, which reported 5 million unique visitors, as opposed to streams. AOL also reported 175,000 simultaneous streams. MSN offered the viewer ship data at 3 p.m. ET on Saturday, and is expected to release updated figures later this week. In addition, MSN is expecting millions more streams through on-demand archives of Live Earth that will be made available during the next several weeks.
