VUit Announces Record Viewership of Iconic Iditarod Sled Dog Race

The Iditarod Channel Reached Viewers in Over 201 DMAs Since The Channel’s Launch on February 22nd

VUit, (pronounced “view it”), a free, ad-supported national streaming service aiming to be the “Netflix of Live, Local, and Free,” today announced record viewership of its presentation of the iconic Iditarod Sled Dog race, which was streamed nationally for free on VUit from March 7th through March 15th.  The channel attracted viewers from 201 DMAs (out of 210 markets nationally), and viewers returned an average of six times to check in at different points during the race, watching an average of 25 minutes, the highest average minutes per viewer of any live curated channel on the VUit platform outside of its popular “NYC Live” street cam. Top streaming markets for the Iditarod included San Francisco, Anchorage, Philadelphia, New York and Chicago. 

Iditarod viewers were enraptured by the official start, which drew tune-in across 178 DMAs. Prior to the start of this year’s race, coverage from the 2019 and 2020 races was made available for viewers in an always-on channel on VUit. The channel launched on February 22nd and is still available for viewers to access.

The Iditarod is an annual long-distance race that traditionally begins in Anchorage, Alaska. Mushers and their sixteen-dog teams travel 1,000 miles, with over fifty teams from around the world competing.  This year, because of the pandemic, the race was shortened slightly to 847 miles, beginning in Willow rather than Anchorage, with 46 mushers registered.  

VUit partner station Gray Television-owned KTUU in Anchorage, Alaska, in collaboration with Iditarod.com, produced the full race for the streaming service, which concluded on March 15th with veteran Iditarod musher Dallas Seavey of Talkeetna crossing the finish line first.

Jack Perry, founder and CEO of Syncbak, VUit’s parent company, said, “This kind of record viewership of the Iditarod really shows the power of VUit and underscores how hyperlocal events have great appeal well beyond the market where they are taking place. This is truly one those thrilling hyperlocal competitions that fans across the nation rarely have the opportunity to watch, but given the access will. Together with KTUU’s brilliant storytelling team, VUit’s broadcast of the race was wildly successful in engaging viewers and from a business standpoint helping our local station partner thrive in the streaming space by providing a way to drive new digital advertising revenue by opening access to a national audience for what has traditionally been a local broadcast event.”

VUit carries more than 200 local TV channels along with a range of themed curated feature channels across politics, sports, food, business, entertainment and culture.  Overall, VUit expects to stream more than 3 million hours of live programming annually, featuring a wide range of local, regional and special interest programming produced by leading television stations from across the country, along with thousands of “VUit Originals.”  Since its launch, many of VUit’s hyperlocal content have attracted viewers from across hundreds of US DMAs.  

VUit is now available on all major streaming platforms and devices, including mobile and desktop web, iOS and Android devices, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, AppleTV, and more.