CNN, Facebook win presidential inauguration live-streaming contest (kinda)

January 20, 2009 | Eric Eldon | Comments |

I woke up this morning without access to a TV — I didn’t have time to go find a place to watch Barack Obama’s presidential inauguration. So I decided to watch online. The problem was that just about every video-streaming service I’ve been trying hasn’t been able to stream without hiccups — not live-streaming sites Joost and Ustream (nor its iPhone application), not even the New York Times.

The best one that I’ve seen is CNN, both in terms of video quality and in terms of complementary features. CNN not only has the smoothest stream that I’ve seen today (although not perfect), the site includes real-time updates from your Facebook friends. This way you can both watch the inauguration, see what your Facebook friends are saying about it and comment on what they have to say. Everything happens instaneously. It’s the best integration of Facebook Connect that I’ve seen yet. See screenshot above.

Update: Facebook has provided some stats about traffic that its CNN integration got.

As of 10:15am PST:

-600,000 status updates have been posted so far through the CNN.com Live Facebook feed
-There were an average of 4,000 status updates every minute during the broadcast
-There were 8,500 status updates the minute Obama began his speech
-Obama’s page on Facebook has more than 4 million fans and more than 500,000 wall posts
-Millions of people logged into Facebook during the broadcast

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About the Author, Eric Eldon

Eric currently covers digital media technology and business news, especially what's happening on social networks and their platforms. He also writes and edits stories about venture capital, and lots of other stuff, too. He started at VentureBeat in the spring of 2007, half a year or so after Matt Marshall left his reporting job at the San Jose Mercury News to found the site. Eric previously cofounded a startup called Writewith, that was building editorial software for newspapers and other groups of writers. The startup didn't work out, but he learned a lot.

  • If they win we all lose.

    I think that it is very ironic that CNN an old mono directional media company and Facebook a web 2.0 closed source content sharecropping silo have teamed up on a day that we should associate with freedom and fairness.
  • Dissapointed in FB
    I thing you're wrong. NPR had the best streaming option. Facebook had a wait to join up. I didn't care to chat with friends watching, just needed a quick stream to connect up.
  • I didn't have to wait to join CNN-Facebook.

    Obviously if you didn't want to chat in the first place, you wouldn't like any sort of social features, so you're making an apples-to-oranges comparison.
  • Alan Geers
    CNN feed was very choppy for me.

    I watched the Ustream AP feed the whole time and it was perfect.
  • Colleen Sanders
    I watched Ustream feed here in England. Well done!
  • I tried using Ustream for 2o minutes and finally gave up in favor of CNN, because Ustream was too choppy and slow.
  • Frustrated in Colorado
    My college was watching the CNN video stream when it lost service 2/3's of the way through. We had to tune into msnbc to find another feed.
  • Joe
    Well, I certainly was locked out. The stream was all jammed up. I got the fox stream to work for about 2 minutes, but was out of luck after that. I was even trying from Arlington, VA, right across the river.
  • Steve
    WRONG: I waited 3 minutes to get on to CNN gave up and went to Yahoo and watch the Live Stream. I also went to MSNBC and it failed kept buffering. Maybe NPR was the first in that is why They gave Facebook such high marks. They will need to work on there facts based on what I am reading from other people.
  • evaid
    It took a while to get in and once I did the video was horribly choppy. It was not so much a stream but more a puddle.
  • Shane
    Facebook integration was very impressive! I didn't experience any issues. I also used Ustream but reverted back to Facebook because I could add and exchange commentary with my true friends!

    I was also watching CNN on TV and found a minute or so delay between the TV telecast and Facebook. Thanks to my company for approving Obama Day :)
  • pwb
    The video sites still can't figure out why YouTube was so successful: video quality is not so important.
  • Appreciate those stats...useful for a piece...

    EDITORIAL: Obama’s Inauguration Online & the Web 2.0 Generation, a Partisan Party...which is a related. Can be found...

    http://guvnr.com/web/surfing/review-obamas-inau... ... have linked those stats here

    I agree, video quality less important generally but for special event like this, is more important. I watched CNN.com, should've watched UStream!
  • Matt McMillin
    I was watching ABC's live coverage on my LG Voyager with Verizon V-Cast with absolutely no problems. I didn't have any "buffering" issues or choppy video. (Sounds like a commercial, sorry)

    I was stuck at my store with no television access and the only radio station we could find that was carrying it had Rush Limbaugh commenting over the audio. I had 6 people huddled around my desk watching on my phone. We were all impressed with the quality, but after hearing all the problems there were with other online streams, I am astounded that I was able to get it at all!
  • Interesting