Te Matatini pulls in worldwide audience

Coverage of this year's Te Matatini is being credited for thousands of people around the world watching the kapa haka festival.

Te Matatini Society praised the work of Maori Television in helping create the "social media kapa haka festival" attracting viewers from all around the world.

A broadcasting relationship between Maori Television and Te Matatini Society saw the festival being streamed live through the Maori Television website.

Coverage was also available on the television channel and through social networks, Twitter and Facebook.

During the four-day festival, Maori Television's Te Kaea Facebook page ballooned to almost 20,000 likes and the Maori Television website recorded more than 80,000 unique hits as internet users accessed performances and streamed live the final day's action.

Viewership of the live stream for the final day's performances was recorded at 20,520. Viewership of highlights of the first three days of the festival continues, with about 15,000 people having viewed the programmes on Maori Television.

About 29.5 per cent of internet viewership accessed the Maori Television site through a mobile device.

While most of the internet viewership was generated from New Zealand (56 per cent) and Australia (41 per cent), the remaining traffic came from the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, United Arab Emirates and the Netherlands.

The online accessing of the festival was in addition to the more than 233,000 viewers who watched some or all of the live television coverage of the finals on Sunday February 24. Te Matatini executive director Darrin Apanui said the internet figures, as well as comments on social media networks, had been extremely encouraging for Te Matatini.