Thirty-Four Hours of Content Aired on Multiple ESPN Platforms

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ESPN’s array of multimedia platforms, including television, internet and mobile, once again allowed fans to consume more hours of Winter X Games content than ever before. The world’s premier action sports competition was held January 27– 30 in Aspen, Colo., with 24 original hours of high-definition coverage on ESPN and ESPN2 and 18 hours on ESPN 3D. A total of 34 hours of Winter X Games 15 content was also distributed across ESPN’s digital platforms, including ESPN3.com, ESPN.com/Action, XGames.com and ESPN Mobile. Winter X Games content, results and updates were also distributed through the X Games social media platforms including Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare and Tumblr.  Outside the United States, Winter X Games 15 was delivered to more than 382 million homes and live to 154 countries and territories, including Africa, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Caribbean, Europe, Israel, Latin America, Mexico, Middle East and New Zealand.

The event’s successes this year included record increases in usage on ESPN3.com and the company’s other digital platforms including: espn.com/action, xgames.com, mobile devices, You Tube, Facebook, Twitter and more. 

Digital:

• Total hours of Winter X Games 15 viewed on ESPN3.com, ESPN’s 24/7 sports broadband network, was up 30% compared to last year.
• ESPN.com/Action provided on-site coverage of Winter X Games 15 and delivered its most interactive Winter X to date including extensive preview content, instant results, ZOOM photo galleries, live commentary and athlete chats, daily recaps and social media integration. Through two weeks of Winter X Games 15 coverage (January 23-February 5), ESPN.com/Action generated more than 1.3 million visits and nearly 1.7 million video starts, up 47% and 11%, respectively according to Adobe. Additionally, page views on the mobile web site were up 211% compared to the same time period last year.
• ESPN.com/Action had its most-trafficked Winter X competition day ever on Sunday, January 30, with more than one million page views, up 18% from Winter X Games 14. Real Snow, the first video-only contest at Winter X that features exclusive video from eight snowboarders competing for the best overall impression, drove 19% of total video consumption.
• The X Games Channel on You Tube had its most trafficked week ever, with more than eleven million video views during Winter X coverage (January 23-February5). The X Games Channel averaged a record 2.3 million video views per day on Saturday, January 29 and Sunday, January 30. Video of Torstein Horgmo’s triple cork is the most viewed ESPN YouTube video ever, with more than 5.6 million views.
• The Winter X Games 15 app was the number one free sports app in the iTunes store, and all versions of the Winter X app for Android and iPhone were downloaded more than a 130,000 times through the two weeks of Winter X Games 15 coverage (January 23-February 5).
• Fans on ESPN’s X Games Facebook page generated 43 million post views and more than 800,000 page views during the four-day event. The X Games page on Facebook grew by 20% and added over 170,000 new fans during the four days of Winter X Games 15. ESPN’s X Games page now has more than 1.5 million likes. During the month of January the X Games Facebook page had more than 58 million post views, up 175%.
• Original live programming produced for the X Games Facebook page and Livestream channel included daily interactive athlete chats and an “Inside X” preview show. Over the four days of Winter X Games 15 this featured content attracted four million viewer minutes and over 700,000 video streams.
• ESPN’s Twitter feed featured event updates, breaking news, competition results and a behind the scenes look at Winter X Games 15 athletes and courses.  The feed was also incorporated into ESPN’s Winter X Games telecast and reached a Twitter trending topic during the four days of Winter X Games 15. Winter X Games 15 had more than seven thousand mentions on Twitter during the four days of the event and added almost ten thousand new followers.

Television:  

• Overall, 39.7 million people from the U.S. tuned in to the Winter X Games during the four-day event, which includes all live Winter X Games 15 telecasts.
• Winter X Games 15 delivered a 0.9 HH coverage rating on ESPN in the U.S., representing an average of 883,000 households and nearly 1,303,000 viewers (P2+).

Mobile:

• ESPN Mobile kept fans on the go close to the action.  During the event, ESPN exchanged approximately 65,000 text messages updates with fans during the four days, an increase of 20% from Winter X Games 14.

Attendance:

• The Winter X Games 15 total attendance in Aspen was a record 114,200 – an increase of approximately 36% from 2010 (84,100).

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