Shuttle Launch Sets Streaming Record

Nearly 433,000 people tuned in to watch the Space Shuttle Discovery roar into space Tuesday morning, in an event that smashed a streaming video record set by AOL earlier this month. 335,000 people simultaneously watched via Yahoo in Windows Media, while Akamai served up the rest in Real Video format.

AOL jumped into the record books on July 2 when Live 8 concerts were streamed to over 175,000 people simultaneously.

One key factor in the number of video streams was the timing of Discovery’s launch: 10:38am ET on Tuesday. Many Americans were at work and the Web was their only outlet to catch the historical moment.

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