Miami, Fl – August 27, 2008
Terra’s Broadcast of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games Achieves Record Internet Audience
- One out of every 10 Internet users in Latin America followed the games through Terra, a total of 22.756 million people
- Terra’s Olympics sites registered more than 39 million watched videos from August 6th through August 24th
- Terra reports record numbers of visits to Terra.com for the Olympic coverage
- Terra will broadcast the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games from September 6th to 17th
Miami, Fl – August 27, 2008 – Terra, the leading Internet Company in Latin America, 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.
In the US, Terra’s coverage of the Olympics for the Hispanic community resulted in over a 100% increase in sports related traffic. There was also a high demand for videos as Hispanics looked for coverage and in-depth stories about the athletes and their home country teams.
Another major highlight for Terra’s coverage of the Olympics was the interactive participation of Internet users. More than 20,000 messages were posted on the FanZone interactive channel, with pictures, videos and text messages sent to the athletes for “good vibes”. The Terra Olympics site was launched on August 1st, offering Internet users 13 exclusive simultaneous live channels and on demand videos. Terra broadcasted 4,000 hours of video, for 732 events from 38 different modalities. Due to an agreement with the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Terra was the only portal with exclusive rights to broadcast the games live through the Internet, and near live on the cell phone, free of charge, throughout Latin America.
More than 3,000 videos, articles and photos were produced and published in Terra’s Olympics site. Internet TV studios located at IBC, in Beijing, and Terra’s facilities in Brazil, Mexico and USA provided the largest online coverage ever done in Latin America. The content was produced in real time in three different languages: Spanish, English and Portuguese by 200 people, 25 of these in Beijing. Terra, the Beijing 2008 Organizing Committee (BOCOG) and the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) also announced today an agreement to broadcast, for the first time, the Paralympic Games live and on demand on the Internet and near live on mobile phones in Latin America. From September 6th to 17th, Internet users will be able to follow all game activities and results.
About Terra USA
Terra USA is the largest original digital content producer for U.S. Hispanics. Its portal Terra.com includes 29 channels in Spanish featuring News, Music, Entertainment, Sports and Terra TV as well as community areas, blogs and services reaching the broadest audience in the U.S. Hispanic market according
to comScore Media Metrix and Neilsen/Net Ratings. Terra is part of Terra Networks S.A. a leading global Internet group operating portals in the U.S. , Latin America and Spain and the #1 Internet access provider in Latin America and Spain.
About Terra Latin America
Terra, the largest internet company in Latin America, is active in 18 countries, including the United States, and already has approximately 58 million unique visitors per month, 8 million unique users per month on Terra TV, with an average of 55 million video streams per month and more than 35 thousand hours watched per day.
Terra reported a net revenue of 300 million euros in 2006 and has portals in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, United States, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Uruguay and Venezuela.
Media Contact:
Lina Baena
lina@ccomgroupinc.com
305.371.4030
