5.2 Million Watch Space Jump on TV

Baumgartner's fall sets ratings records for Velocity, Discovery Channel

By Andrea Morabito -- Broadcasting & Cable, 10/16/2012 2:09:11 PM

An average of 5.2 million viewers watched Felix Baumgartner's historic space jump on Sunday on Discovery Channel and Velocity, setting ratings marks for both networks.

Velocity's broadcast of Space Jump Live, which covered the Red Bull Stratos mission featuring Baumgartner's record-breaking jump from 125,000 feet above the Earth turned in the one-year-old network's most-watched telecast ever, attracting 991,000 total viewers.

It also set new high ratings marks for the channel, including in households (0.73) and adults 25-54 (0.52). On Discovery, an average of 4.21 million total viewers watched Baumgartner's jump from 1:35-2:22 p.m., making it the channel's highest-rated non-prime program ever

Baumgartner's jump aired live on TV in the U.S. exclusively on Velocity and Discovery Channel. The live stream of the jump on YouTube's Red Bull Channel drew 8 million viewers at its peak.