Skype sponsors Oprah Webcasts

Oprah's second Webcast of her book club class pulled in about 200,000 Internet watchers, down from the 500,000 who tried to watch the week before. By all reports there were not the congestion issues which plagued the previous Webcast, but in any case both represent a milestone in large-scale, live-web events. Significantly Skype video was used for the interactive elements and worked well in both episodes.

Skype has major co-branding agreement with the nine-part Oprah series. It  represents a big play for Skype as it seeks to build out its U.S. audience beyond the East Coast where typically most of Skype's U.S. traffic comes from. The Webcast is also a classic case of mass media utilizing the new IP platforms to reach beyond their traditional footprints. The Webcast is now available as a download (also Skype co-branded) and it will be informative to check what the audience numbers are in another six months time.

For more:
- Oprah download of Webcast
- Webcast history made Article
- Skype video gets exposure Blog

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