Sandy benefit concert draws 19.3 million

More than 19 million people watched at least a portion of the much-hyped “12-12-12” concert to benefit Hurricane Sandy relief efforts last Wednesday night, impressive considering it did not air in primetime on any of the Big Four broadcast networks.

Nielsen reported that 19.3 million total viewers tuned in across 15 cable and smaller broadcast networks for at  least six minutes during the concert, which ran from 7:30 p.m. to midnight.

The concert actually aired on 38 channels, but many of them were smaller networks that Nielsen does not measure.

The concert played on six New York City stations Wednesday, drawing almost 700,000 viewers and preempting regularly scheduled content.

Nielsen said the event, which featured the Rolling Stones, Bill Joel, Bruce Springsteen and Paul McCartney, among others, was the “most widely distributed live music event in history,” with some 2 billion people having access to it on television, radio or online.

Indeed, it was streamed across dozens of web sites, with at least 4.5 million served up, according to early numbers.

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