US elections: election night was also covered via a live video podcast

According to Nielsen, 31.2 million viewers tuned in on 3 November to follow the US mid-term election coverage across 13 channels. Another section of the audience was listening to podcasts and radio, both live and via video.

The political podcast *Breaking Points*, hosted by Krystal Ball and Saagar Enjeti, has surpassed two million views for its live stream of the evening, according to *Podcast News Daily*. The programme followed this up with an ‘After Hours’ session reserved for its paying subscribers. For Jason Sew Hoy, CEO of Supercast, the live stream delivers reach, whilst the premium programme builds a direct relationship with newcomers.

The news website The Hill racked up nearly 1.5 million YouTube views on polling day. That is almost five times its usual daily audience of around 300,000 views, according to Barrett Media. Its most-watched live stream was not its studio broadcast: the speech by Texas Senate candidate James Talarico garnered 123,000 views, compared with 119,000 for the main live stream.

In the UK, Global brought together LBC and The News Agents for the evening. The special programme began at 10 pm on Tuesday 3 November, broadcast simultaneously on LBC, YouTube and Global Player. Simon Marks, followed by Emily Maitlis and Jon Sopel reporting from Washington, took turns presenting.

The Goalhanger network was live for three hours with the US version of its podcast: *The Rest is Politics*. When I checked (8.00 am, Paris time), there were between 20,000 and 40,000 viewers at any one time.