Newspapers USA Today and The New York Times streamed the memorial service live.
(WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — Expected to be one of the biggest media events to have taken place – ever – with city police estimating that between 250,000 and 700,000 fans would flood downtown Los Angeles, where the Tuesday funeral for pop icon Michael Jackson took place. Those crowds, however, may only represent a fraction of the Internet users around the world, who tuned into the memorial via online video streams, cell phones and peer-2-peer networks.
With only about 20,000 admitted to the Staples Center, where the funeral was taking place, and a nearby arena, where the funeral was beamed on big screens, many will be looking online to see the ceremony.
One of the main, high-quality video stream was from CBS News, which streamed a webcast of the event and related coverage on WebTvHub and uStream, which let users view the event on their desktops and mobile devices.
CNN streamed the funeral in conjunction with facebook, letting users see their friend’s reactions via status updates as they watched the live event. Competing social network MySpace offered a live feed of the funeral sponsored by AIG. It also featured music videos of the late singer.
ABCNews had live coverage available, as well as pre-recorded footage relating to Michael’s death available on its website. MSNBC streamed live coverage on its homepage during the memorial service. Entertainment site MTV, and TMZ, which broke the news of Jackson’s death, also streamed live footage from the Staples Center.
Newspapers USA Today and The New York Times streamed the memorial service live, and commercial-supported streaming video site Hulu was the carrier of Fox News’ coverage of the funeral.
For British fans, the BBC UK website also had live coverage of the funeral for those in the UK only.
Aside from official channels, there were a number of unofficial ways to see the memorial. Justin.tv, which allows anyone to broadcast online, was abuzz with live broadcasts from individual users.
Peer-2-peer streaming offered another venue for fans to see the funeral. TVUPlayer (www.tvunetworks.com) and SopCast (www.sopcast.com) offered live streams from TV stations around the world.
