Yahoo! Gets The Youth Vote

Yahoo! News’ foray into presidential debates (or mashups, as they call them) got off to a good start. According to Neeraj Khemlani, VP of programming & development for Yahoo! News:

“…you may be asking yourself how many people actually watched this debate. We had more than 1.1 million viewers, who streamed approximately 4.4 million video clips. Thirty-nine percent of the audience represented the 18-35 demographic. That means our debate attracted about 429,000 18- to 35-year-olds. That’s more from this demographic than any debate so far!

As for who “won” the debate. Khemlani writes, “In our poll, which asked people who they’d vote for after watching the mashup, Barack Obama was the winner with 35% of the votes. Senator Obama squeaked by Hillary Clinton, who received 31% of the votes.”

>Update, from a network insider: “Yahoo’s 429k 18-35′s is an internet number: “unique users”…i.e., the TOTAL number of human beings who EVER viewed ANY portion of the debate. It’s like comparing the average number of people in a grocery store at any one time during the day, versus the TOTAL number of people who came through the door at any time during the same day. Of COURSE the total will be bigger than the average. But it’s meaningless.”

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