Astro sets Guinness World Record with Thaipusam coverage

Malaysian Television content provider Astro has set the Guinness World Record for the "Longest Live Streamed Festival" with 55 hours of non-stop live-streaming of this year's Hindu Thaipusam festival.
Astro Ulagam, an Indian entertainment news and event hub which is a part of Astro Malaysia Holdings Bhd, was used as a platform to reach out to the masses, during the festival from January 22 to 25, achieving a record-breaking 119 million views on its Facebook page, as compared to four million views in 2014 and 40 million views last year.
In an effort to connect Indians worldwide and offer an opportunity to the global audience to witness the Thaipusam celebration and understand the true meaning of the festival, Astro Ulagam embarked on an ambitious journey to live stream the auspicious occasion from seven locations in Sri Lanka, India and Malaysia.

Malaysia's 28 million population comprises 8 per cent ethnic Indians mostly Tamil Hindus.
Astro Ulagam's marketing senior assistant vice-president Ravikumar Krishnan said the campaign's hashtag #vetrivel2016 trended on social media.
He said 35 per cent of the audience was from the United States, 28 per cent from India, 16 per cent from Malaysia, followed by United Kingdom (5 per cent), Canada (4 per cent) and the rest from other countries.

Guinness World Records official adjudicator Swapnil Dangarikar presented the certificate to Astro's senior vice president of Indian Customer Business Rajamani Chellamuthu.
Swapnil, while congratulating Astro for also playing a key role as the country's tourism ambassador said "it was no easy task getting the Guinness World Records as one has to go through screening process, provide necessary documents and answer many questions to ensure the credibility and validity of the award."

Rajamani said the live streaming of the Thaipusam procession created much interest globally and transcended geographical boundaries via the digital platform.
"The Guinness World Records attempt took 100 crew members deployed across three nations, Sri Lanka, India and Malaysia, and the use of drones to best capture the festivity.