Msnbc.com Claims “election coverage by a landslide” over CNN

Msnbc.com Claims “election coverage by a landslide” over CNN

Msnbc.com tonight is claiming an “election coverage by a landslide” over arch online rival CNN. According to internal numbers the Microsoft/NBC Universal joint venture is reporting an astounding 53 million unique visitors to the site during the week ending November 8. This would be 400 percent above normal traffic. Citing Nielsen Online numbers, visitors to Msnbc.com spent 13.5 minutes per visit vs. 10.5 for CNN, the company reported. Also, the site claims to have had 11.5 unique visitors on Novemer 5, the day after election day.

Video streaming was huge, registering over 40 million for the week ending November 8. Much of the viewing was for long periods, an average of 42 minutes. This was driven largely by the live streaming of the MSNBC cable programming online.

On October 28 at the msnbc.com digtial cafe in New York, at the Beet.TV Online Video Roundtable, moderators, CNET’s Dan Farber and TechCrunch’s Erick Schonfeld, questioned msnbc.com president and publisher Charlie Tillinghast and CNN.com Sr. VP and GM KC Estenson about how user interface drives online video consumption of video.

Andy Plesser, Executive Producer

Editor’s Note: There is a brief technical, passing technical problem with the video, where a blank screen is seen, please be patient and view the segment in its entirety.