Inaugural Festivities Draw Near-Record Numbers

By SAM SCHECHNER and T.W. FARNAM
Associated Press
Aloysia Rochon of Oakland, Pa., on the National Mall after the ceremony.
President Barack Obama's inauguration approached records for attendance and TV viewership, according to preliminary figures released Wednesday.
A crowd estimated at between 800,000 and 1.8 million people assembled in Washington, D.C., to watch Mr. Obama's swearing-in Tuesday, possibly outpacing the estimated 1.2 million people who gathered for Lyndon Johnson's 1965 inauguration. Smaller crowds congregated in other cities as well, including in Times Square in New York and Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta.
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David Bobo was one of the workers cleaning up at the National Mall Wednesday.
Meanwhile, 37.8 million people watched the daytime festivities on 18 broadcast and cable networks, more than the tally for any swearing-in since Ronald Reagan's in 1981 that attracted 41.8 million viewers, according to Nielsen Co.
Mr. Obama also topped Jimmy Carter's and Richard Nixon's first inaugurals, although they garnered a larger percentage of TV households because the number of households was smaller at the time. By comparison, election night, during prime time, attracted more than 71 million viewers.

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Nielsen's TV estimates don't include out-of-home or Internet viewing.
But several news and Internet outlets reported that they had served record numbers of live-video streams via the Web, potentially adding millions to the total. Akamai Technologies Inc., which helps Web sites deliver high-bandwidth content more efficiently, said that at about 12:15 p.m. EST Tuesday it delivered a peak of 6.2 million concurrent live video or audio streams, most of which were of the inauguration.
Around the time of Mr. Obama's swearing-in and speech, Time Warner Inc.'s CNN reported a peak of 1.3 million concurrent video streams, General Electric Co.'s MSNBC reported a peak of more than 1.02 million concurrent streams and News Corp.'s Fox News said it had a peak of 365,000 concurrent streams. Web outlets ustream.tv and Joost.com reported about 400,000 and close to 100,000 concurrent streams, respectively. Hulu.com, a joint venture of G.E.'s NBC Universal and News Corp., was among outlets that streamed the event live but declined to share figures.

Millions also tuned in to evening TV coverage of the inaugural galas. Walt Disney Co.'s ABC coverage of "The Neighborhood Ball," at which Mr. Obama and his wife, Michelle, danced to Beyonce Knowles's rendition of "At Last," attracted 12.6 million viewers, according to early Nielsen figures provided by the network.
Some coverage isn't included in Nielsen's tallies, including Liberty Media Corp. 's QVC shopping network, which offered live updates from the Creative Coalition ball during the 9 p.m. hour, while hosts sold commemorative coins, an Obama-emblazoned cotton blanket and a bow-topped handbag designed specifically for the occasion.
"Let's be honest, for us, as girls, beside all the history we've made today, it's all about the bag -- and the shoes," the bag's designer told viewers during a live update from the ball.
Estimates of the crowd in Washington varied.
The National Parks Service issued a statement Wednesday saying it "will use the figure of 1.8 million attendees when we refer to the inaugural in the future," in which it cited printed accounts.
British publishing company IHS Jane's estimated 1.3 million to 1.6 million people were present based on an analysis of crowd densities, which it said ranged from 0.1 to 5 people per square meter.