Aloha from Hawaii question.....

[bollyworld]

How many people actually watched Aloha from Hawaii 1st time of showing? Like for example they say MTV Awards has a potential audience of a billion but we know only a small percentage will actually watch it. does anybody know the sort of figures who watched AFH in 73?

[EDOEP]

How many people actually watched Aloha from Hawaii 1st time of showing? Like for example they say MTV Awards has a potential audience of a billion but we know only a small percentage will actually watch it. does anybody know the sort of figures who watched AFH in 73?

if i remember correctly the original show was seen by about 1 billion viewers worldwide which back then was roughly 1/3 of the world's population (and i think that was a higher number of spectators than the apollo 11 / eagle landing on the moon in july '69 had).

in some countries like in germany one could unfortunately not join in - due to different technical standards (PAL vs NTSC). so i saw it first on march 12th, 1973 which was the first time ever shown on german TV .

hugs, ellie

[Tony Trout]

If I'm not mistaken, the total viewing audience was 1.5 billion....that includes the April 4, 1973 airing in the U.S. 1.5 billion people didn't see it at the same time on January 14, 1973.

[ricardo b. prospero]

Since the show was beamed around the world, it is hard to estimate the number of viewers then. But considering the number of TV viewers around the world and being the first of its kind show, we can make a safe estimate that the billion figure is correct.

"Before anyone did something, Elvis has done everything"

[Getlo]

The figure of 1.5 billion is an estimate only, and couldn't possibly be proven.

And yes, as Tony stated, that total only comes into play when you include the US viewers from April.

At best, it would have been a "potential figure" of 1.5 billion. For this figure to be accurate, that would mean every TV capable of receiving the show would've had to have been tuned in, which simply was not the case.

Also, I know that the figures for Australia were fudged. "Australia" did not take the show live ... only Sydney and Melbourne. Perhaps the same thing applies to other nations, I don't know.

There is no way, even with US viewers included, that 1.5 billion actual people watched that telecast.

[KPM]

I think Japan had about a 90% viewership- right now they have about 127 million people in- 73 (just a guess) lets say 90 million so that would make 81 million for Japan. Remember the number of sets would not translate into the total number of people watching unless for each set only 1 person viewed. I know in my house in 73 we had 5 people watching Aloha from 1 set.
Here is some Info about the show and how it was sent out to various countries:
Performed at the Honolulu International Center Arena on January 14, 1973 at 12:30 AM Hawaiian time, it was beamed live via Globecam Satellite to Australia, South Korea, Japan, Thailand, the Philippines, South Vietnam and other countries, and was seen on a delayed basis in approximately thirty European countries.
The first American airing was April 4, 1973 on NBC-TV. It was a worldwide ratings smash and the soundtrack album went to number one on the "Billboard" album chart.
The American broadcast attracted 51% of the television viewing audience and was seen in more American households than man's first walk on the moon. In all, it was initially seen in approximately forty countries by 1-to-1.5 billion people.

In 73 there was not 140 channels on cable in the US (or anywhere for that matter) we had 6 channels in my area then- so this was a truely special event.

[Getlo]

it was beamed live via Globecam Satellite to Australia,

See my previous post. This is not strictly true ...

[KPM]

See my previous post. This is not strictly true ...

I just post the info I find and what I remember from that time.
The point was no matter how you divide up the total viewership it was considerable. It is difficult to gauge any show with a real degreee of accuracy. If it was even 500 million total for the show that is a huge viewership for any period of Television history. All statistics are subject to interpretation and best guess scenerios-Mark Twain once said:
There are three kinds of lies: lies, ****************ed lies, and statistics.
I'm sure someone can claim 1 billion and someone else can say it was barely seen if they use the right info and statistics. I do not believe the 1.5 billion figure- but the billion mark might have been possible between all the showings in 73.
Truthfully there is no way to know what is strictly true over 40 years later.