CNN edges out Guardian and BBC as best performer

by Danielle Long, Revolution UK 07-Nov-06, 08:00

LONDON - CNN Europe has just pipped Guardian Unlimited and BBC Online to rank as the best performing media website.

The finding is from online performance monitoring company Keynote, which checked a number of media sites, including BBC, ITV, Reuters and Sky based on performance and availability.

The ranking found CNN Europe was best, the site scored an "impressive" availability of 99.99% combined with a load time of 1.88 seconds.

It was followed by The Guardian and BBC, which tied as the second best media sites. The BBC scored highly for its fast load time of 0.69 seconds while The Guardian site had 100% availability throughout October.

The third best media site title was shared by MSNBC and Times Online.

However, Keynote's found a number of sites under performing, including ITV, Sky and Reuters.

The Reuters website scored lowest with a load time of 7.4 seconds and availability of 88.04%, while ITV was completely unavailable to visitors on the morning of October 25 2006.

Haran Sold, vice-president and managing director EMEA at Keynote, said: "As subscriptions for newspapers dwindle and the industry shifts towards web or mobile content delivery, it is important that media companies understand this new delivery channel and perfect it as they have done with their printed channel.

"As media sites are heavily relied on for up-to-date and breaking news stories it is imperative that companies ensure their web sites can handle large amounts of traffic without crashing at peak times and delivering the content within the two- to four-second timeframe."

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