TVNZ's election coverage - hit for Kiwis overseas

TVNZ's online election coverage - a big hit for Kiwis overseas

Thousands of New Zealanders living overseas chose TVNZ's website, tvnz.co.nz, to get live online coverage of last weekend's election.

The site recorded over 13,000 page impressions from overseas users for its live election video streams, which enabled users to watch blow-by-blow coverage from their home PC. Another 11,000 page impressions were recorded from New Zealanders at home who preferred their election coverage online.

With real time electorate results available on Election night, the total number of page impressions to the site as a whole rose sharply to nearly 790,000 - almost double the previous day's total. The greatest amount of traffic to the site was recorded between 8 and 9pm.

Users also had the bonus of live coverage of the night's major non-election story – the threat to the Sky Tower from a light plane which later crashed into the sea off the Auckland suburb of Kohimarama. The story broke during the course of the election coverage and the website team ran a video stream of the event which became 3rd most visited video stream of the night.

Coming up to the election, the website streamed the leaders' debates live as well as carrying on-demand videos, and provided transcripts for people with hearing impairments.

"Since the launch of tvnz.co.nz we have put a lot of money and effort into making sure that the site is not only an extension of the TV ONE and TV2 experience but is also a reliable source of news and information for Kiwis at home and overseas", says Alistair Matthewson, TVNZ's General Manager of Interactive.

"The success of our online election coverage shows that our interactive offering is making a big contribution to TVNZ as the 'home place' for New Zealanders."

ENDS

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