Big Brother Hits the News Again 31/08/00 Further to the findings from NetValue recently reported on MrWeb, the latest research from MMXI Europe confirms the success of the Big Brother phenomena. The latter has become the fastest moving website since MMXI Europe started recording the monthly behaviour of UK Internet users in October 1999. The site appeared for the first time in the July 2000 rankings, coming straight in at number 26, gaining more visitors than established sites such as Lastminute.com, Letsbuyit.com, iii.co.uk, Thomascook.co.uk and Tescodirect.com. Channel 4, who broadcast the show, also saw a significant increase of visitors to their site, growing from 1.4% reach and 148,000 unique visitors in June to a 6.9% reach and 740,000 unique visitors in July. 77% of people who went to the Channel 4 site also went to the Big Brother site. According to the findings 8.1% of the UK at home Internet population went to the site to have their own view of the Big Brother house. The website is most popular with the 25-34 age group, with men making up 67% of the audience. As well as watching live coverage of the contestants, the website also contains news, gossip and profiles of the housemates, and allows people to navigate around the house room-by-room and camera-by-camera. Analysis of the data shows the impact that advertising and promotional activity can have on audience figures. Three brands with web links from the Big Brother site to their own experienced an increase in visits in July. 9.6% of visitors to Big Brother went to auction site QXL.com, 6.6% to travel destination E-bookers.com, and 4.5% to Shopsmart.com. The Big Brother phenomenon is not unique to the UK. In March the MMXI panel in Germany showed the significant growth of BigBrother-haus.de. It had 1,419, 000 unique visitors and 16.6% reach, overtaking popular sites like AOL proprietary, Web.de and MSN.de. Just like the increase of visits to Channel 4's site in the UK, the German broadcaster of BigBrother, RTL 11, also saw an increase in activity that month. In March the site had a 7.3% reach compared to February when the site did not have enough visitors to appear on MMXI Europe's German report. According to Mari Kim Coleman, UK Managing Director of MMXI Europe, "The incredible success of the Big Brother website in the UK highlights the potential this media has to reach and interact with the public. Visitors can watch events unfold minute by minute, and influence the outcome of the 64-day competition. By giving visitors more control and information, the site shows how the Internet can provides audiences with a unique experience, and one completely different from a TV programme."