America's Cup: Million see action via online streaming

Kiwis cannot get enough of the America's Cup. Photo / NZ Herald

More than a million New Zealanders have been watching the America's Cup live online, adding to the hundreds of thousands viewing the racing on television.

More than quarter of a million Kiwis live streamed race 12 yesterday - the biggest online audience of the regatta yet.

A spokeswoman said the volume of streams had increased throughout the finals. Weekday streams performed significantly better online than weekend streams.

"This demonstrates the strength of alternative viewing platforms when people are less able to watch on TV."

And TVNZ's head of television, Jeff Latch, said viewing numbers now well exceeded the audiences who tuned in during Team New Zealand's successful challenge for the America's Cup in 1995.

The sailing has also been read more than anything else on nzherald.co.nz. Head of news and online editor Cathy O'Sullivan said the America's Cup continued to dominate readers' interest across all Herald online platforms yesterday.

The most read article of the day was the live blog on race 12 and readers spent four times longer on the live blog than any other story yesterday.

And on Google, searches for the words "America's Cup" in New Zealand were up 750 per cent in the past 30 days.