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LiveAirShowTV’s SUN ‘n FUN broadcasts shatter records

By General Aviation News Staff · May 4, 2021 ·

LiveAirShowTV’s four livestream telecasts from the 2021 SUN ‘n FUN Aerospace Expo shattered records for online airshow views and impressions.

The LiveAirshowTV-produced telecasts were streamed April 15-18, 2021, over LiveAirShowTV’s social media platforms, as well as those of SUN ‘n FUN and several affiliated partners, including the local market NBC affiliate, WFLA.

The initial live replay views over two weeks topped 640,000, according to LiveAirShowTV officials. With the addition of the WFLA’s rebroadcast, which included a viral video featuring Saturday’s Blue Angels performance, the total views topped 2.3 million. This exceeds LiveAirshowTV’s previous record for views of a multi-day event, held by the 2017 Aviation Nation livestreams, company officials report.

The Blue Angels at SUN ‘n FUN 2021. (Photo by Matt Genuardi)

Impressions of the video posts from which the views came were equally impressive, with 2.6 million, and an estimated 6.6 million, including WFLA. This, too, is an all-time high for LiveAirshowTV social media impressions delivered for a multi-day air show, surpassing the Selfridge ANG 100th anniversary air show.

Views are any time a broadcast is clicked on and watched, official explain. Impressions are the number of times a Facebook user sees the post, or anything about it, whether they click on it or not. Engagements are when people “like” a post or actually comment on a post.

Records were also set in metrics contributing to views, including average watch time and peak concurrent viewers.

And people from at least 100 countries around the world viewed some of the airshow coverage, officials added.

“We are very excited to continue raising the bar in terms of quality and reach of our air show broadcasts,” said LiveAirshowTV President Jeff Lee. “We strive to deliver value to partners such as SUN ‘n FUN and the Aerospace Center for Excellence, leveraging our distribution and storytelling expertise to help them achieve success.”

At the anchor desk were Larry Strain, Steph Stricklen, and Rob Reider. Announcer Dave Keim is not pictured. He was on the announcer’s stand.

“Our partnership with LiveAirshowTV has really changed the marketing and deliverables game for SUN ‘n FUN and the Aerospace Center for Excellence,” said Greg Gibson, Chief Marketing Officer and Airshow Director. “With this amazing reach, we have had our messaging distributed to the most massive audience in our history, and our sponsors have had their brands showcased in a way that is truly groundbreaking for the airshow industry.”

Manning the control room were: Front bench: Technical Director Jonathan Cruz, Director Jeff Lee, Broadcast Producer Craig MacEachern. Back Bench: Josh Udvig (Grfx) and Bryan Lee (Coordinating Producer).

As it has done in the past, LiveAirshowTV conducted a survey to accompany its coverage of SUN ‘n FUN 2021, revealing several important points, according to Lee.

First, supporting the findings from livestreaming of other event types, air show ticket sales are increased due to awareness and excitement generated.

Second, more than 30% of viewers are active aviation participants, and two-thirds of the remainder say they’re interested in becoming a pilot or involved in aviation. 

Finally, viewers would watch livestreamed air shows often if they were available, another plus for LiveAirshowTV’s growing coverage of the industry’s most successful events, Lee concluded.

Missed out on the action? You can watch the telecasts on LiveAirShowTV’s website.

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