Election coverage boosts RTE web traffic


29 May 2007

Five million hits to RTE’s website were recorded last Thursday alone, compared with the average business day of just over a million visitors, due to extensive election 2007 coverage.

The recorded traffic to the site, from election day on Thursday up until Sunday, reached over 10 million.

Although most visitors came from Ireland, the next-highest number came from the UK, followed by the US, EU, Canada and Australia.

Rte.ie’s coverage of the Primetime debate on 17 May between the Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny pulled in 1.5 million hits that day. Some 68pc of those who voted in the election said that they had watched this debate.

Rte also launched a news portal at rte.ie/election on 30 April, focusing entirely on election news coverage with areas such as constituency results, and first-time voters guide.

By Marie Boran