Terra’s Broadcast of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games achieves record Internet audience.

Terra recorded the most-watched Internet event in Latin America with the broadcast of Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. Terra reported the highest online audience ever, reaching 22.756 million people, which represents approximately 15% of the total number of Internet users in the region. More than 39 million videos were streamed, 100 million pages were viewed and more than 1.5 million mobile phone users watched over 6 million page views. The highest audience was recorded on August 19th during the men’s football match between Brazil and Argentina, which registered more than 2 million videos watched live.

The novel experience of broadcasting the Beijing Olympics revealed a change of habits in Latin American Internet users. The viewers went online to watch the games live. An unprecedented 30% of the total 29 million videos streamed were seen live compared to an average of 10% for past events. As expected users showed most interest in the most popular sports in Latin America like soccer, basketball and volleyball. However there was also high degree of interest in badminton, shooting and archery which will help the development of these sports throughout Latin America.

“The Terra Beijing coverage brought a new kind of experience for Internet users in Latin America. For the first time people were able to watch, free of charge, the entire broadcast of the biggest sport event in the world, with 13 simultaneous live channels covering all sports. Terra also allowed the viewers to watch at any time all the competitions on demand through their computers and mobile phones. “The Beijing 2008 Olympics will entirely reshape the way people consume videos on Internet, demanding more live events and immersive experience”, said Fernando Madeira, CEO, Terra Latin America.