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First-ever pre-Oscars coverage online

Relax News
Friday 05 March 2010 01:00 GMT
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The Academy Awards will provide live streaming coverage of the red carpet arrivals of the stars, for the first time, with tie-ins to its Facebook page, the Oscar website and through Livestream. Also in association with the event coming aboard the social media era, there is an iPhone app.

With the recent increases in televised events such as the Grammy Awards, Super Bowl and Olympics being attributed to Twitter and social media networks, television executives are becoming less afraid of the internet and are learning how to augment their programming to attract viewers.

Live video streaming on the web will be available for the Oscars on Livestream, a new video streaming service. The first major event will be the red carpet at the Oscars, March 7. Livestream (www.livestream.com/) will host the event at APLive starting at 6 pm ET/3 pm PT. Viewers can log in to chat through Twitter and Facebook.

The feed is also available on Facebook at www.facebook.com/TheAcademy, though viewers must register as "fans" of APLive to watch. Consumers can embed the APLive player free-of-charge on their blogs or Facebook pages (if they have less than 500 people watching from any one page).

Livestream viewers have nearly doubled in the last six months with videos being seen by an estimated 17.5 million people each month with the player, and 3 million on its website. Other partners with Livestream include ESPN, Fox, and National Geographic. Its biggest competitor is Ustream, which streamed the Golden Globes.

The official Oscars app for iPhone and iPod touch gives users access to movie trailers, real-time Oscar night results and other Academy Awards-related content. Features include access to the nominees list and trailers for the 10 Best Picture-nominated films, and predicting winners. The Oscar App is available for free from the App Store on iPhone and iPod touch or at www.itunes.com/appstore.

Apple also offers the Red Carpet app for a chance to win $1,000,000 in its online Oscar pool. It costs $2.99 to vote, predicting the winners. The money will be split among all the winners: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/the-red-carpet/id348875529?mt=8

The Academy Awards will be presented on Sunday, March 7, at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, televised live in the US by ABC Television starting at 5 pm PT/8 pm ET, and shown in more than 200 countries worldwide.

www.oscars.com

RC

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