Fashionistas tune in to live stream from catwalks

February 23rd, 2012

The live stream of 46 catwalk shows from London Fashion week resulted in a 100 per cent increase in the number of viewers year on year – a sign that there is growing demand from an online audience for real-time fashion events.

Fashionistas were able to watch the hottest new designs being paraded via the British Fashion Council’s (BFC) YouTube channel, the London Fashion Week TV site, and for the first time, through publishers’ and designers’ Facebook pages.

Live online video London footage from the week’s shows was also distributed to more than 100 broadcast, online and mobile publishers worldwide, with sites such as Elle, Grazia and the Daily Telegraph carrying live and on-demand video from the events. The streams were watched in more than 200 countries, but attracted the largest number of views in the UK, US, Canada and Germany.

This year also saw a marked increase in content delivery across multiple platforms and devices as part of an effort to reach consumers wherever they are. As well as offering the shows via websites and social networks, they were also available for the first time on The Times’ iPad app.

The BFC’s official video distribution partner was Rightster, which provides technology solutions to help distribute, publish and monetise online video content. To ensure maximum exposure for advertisers, Rightster developed an innovative feature that allows editors to control when ads are triggered during a live stream. This meant extra ads could be screened when a catwalk show ran fashionably late and then stopped once an event started so fashion devotees would not miss anything.

Following the success of London Fashion Week, Rightster, in partnership with InDigital Media, the BFC’s official video production company, will provide a similar digital solution to other major fashion weeks throughout the year.

Rightster chief executive Charlie Muirhead commented, “The BFC and London Fashion Week are leading the global fashion industry in using digital to give designers an effective way to increase their exposure.”