U.K. broadcaster BBC has released figures that show national Top 40 station Radio 1’s Big Weekend event – held May 9 to 10 in Swindon and available on Web and digital TV platforms as well as via radio – was the most interactive to date.
The number of video requests on the Big Weekend Web site jumped to 5.3 million from 1 million in 2008, with over 1 million hits for the six different web cams situated around the site. For the first time, these cameras offered users the ability to choose which area of the event to watch, including on-stage and behind-the-scenes.
While total page impressions rose just 100,000 to 7.4 million, the number of U.K. page impressions rose to 2.2 million from last year’s 1.5 million during the weekend of the event.
The biggest growth, however, came from mobile phones. U.K. mobile site page impressions grew 361% to 143,000, up from 31,000 in 2008, and the debut of mobile video drew 7,900 downloads.
“This year’s event was one of the biggest to date and I’m pleased that our interactive offering was able to reach so many people,” said Ben Chapmen, interactive editor at Radio 1, in a statement. “We are always looking at how we connect with our audiences, and this success marks the beginning of an exciting year for interactive services from Radio 1 and 1Xtra.”
Radio 1’s Big Weekend is a free, ticketed music festival catering for 40,000 attendees. This year it featured Lily Allen, the Prodigy, Snow Patrol and Ne-Yo.
As previously announced, BBC Worldwide Music has secured international television distribution rights for the 2009 Big Weekend (Billboard.biz, June 2).
