Community / ‘Significant audience’ for Up Helly Aa livestream
MANY thousands of people tuned into the Up Helly Aa live online broadcast on Tuesday night, new statistics show.
The livestream, provided by North Broadcast and co-sponsored by Promote Shetland and NorthLink Ferries, was viewed in all corners of the world.
The service also supported national and international media outlets, working with agency partners including Reuters and the FOXLive network, with many showing Up Helly Aa on their websites either live or embedding highlights.
It also enjoyed healthy viewing figures on social media.
Promote Shetland head of content marketing Adam Civic said: “The event on our own YouTube channel attracted over 16K unique viewers from countries including the UK, USA, Canada, Germany and Australia.
“On the Promote Shetland Facebook page, the stream attracted over 20K views. Recordings of the live stream will remain on our social media and websites so people can return to or discover the event all year round.
“Across the Up Helly Aa ‘week’ (21st January – 30th January) the content shared by Promote Shetland was viewed around three million times across the Facebook and Instagram pages.”
He added that this “again shows the huge popularity and increasing awareness of Up Helly Aa and Shetland’s fire festival season”.
“The islands are fortunate to have so many dedicated volunteers who work so hard to organise such spectacular and world-famous events which light up the winter nights,” Civico added.
“These stunning celebrations, including the live stream of Lerwick Up Helly Aa, bring communities together and attract visitors from around the world, helping ensure Shetland remains a year-round tourist destination.”
The first time the Junior Up Helly Aa procession was also broadcast online, via its Facebook page.
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