Gulf Reality Show Draws a Big Web Audience

[ProSense]

Source: New York Times

Forget about “American Idol.” It was BP’s Web-only reality show — live video of the oil spill from the floor of the Gulf of Mexico — that had people fixated on their screens on Wednesday. And the episode “Top Kill” even had a cliffhanger: it could be days before viewers know whether the latest effort to plug the well is successful.

“BP oil spill live feed” climbed close to the top of a list of hot searches on Google on Wednesday afternoon (“top kill video” and “oil spill top kill” were also on the list). The video of a brown undulating gusher against the deep blue water has been popular since it was posted May 18. BP said that more than 300,000 people viewed it on Tuesday alone.

And a spokesman for Representative Edward J. Markey, Democrat of Massachusetts, said that more than a million people had viewed the “spill cam” on a House Web site. PBS has created a widget to let people embed the video on their own sites.

A spike in interest seemed to come after BP announced Tuesday that it would continue the live stream during its effort to stop the flow by pumping thousands of pounds of heavy fluids into the leak, though viewers were warned not to read too much into what they saw at any given moment. BP had considered stopping the feed during the procedure, but decided that the show would go on.


Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/27/us/27spillcam.html