Thousands watch online eclipse

Thousands flocked online to witness streamed video coverage of the solar eclipse yesterday - and despite many ending up frustrated as sites exceeded their capacity, the companies behind them claimed the event was a great success.

BBC Online said its eclipse microsite notched up a million page views over the course of the day. The organisation received around 20 emails per hour, with visitors to the site submitting a total of 2,500 questions about the eclipse. However, many users encountered difficulties accessing the BBC's online live video coverage.

ITN also claimed a massive influx of eclipse watchers. Owen Pringle, marketing manager for ITN New Media, claimed nearly 80,000 users produced over six times the site's normal traffic during the day.

Some reports claimed many sites had struggled to cater for the huge numbers of visitors, but Pringle said: "We have in place mechanisms to expand the site's capabilities whenever a big story breaks. The site experienced stress but it didn't go down."

Many sites were set up specifically for the event. Eclipse.org.uk exceeded the BBC with 1.5 million page views. A spokesman denied reports in The Times newspaper that the site had crumbled under the pressure.

Sky News Online celebrated one million page impressions - ten times its regular rate. It claimed its servers were running at maximum bandwidth to allow as many users on the site, but refused to confirm whether the site had maintained a consistent performance.