Neuberger, Hale, Sumption and the rest of the gang pull in the views
The Supreme Court has become an unexpected online sensation — its new video archive has attracted an impressive 10,000 views a month since its debut.
An online audience of thousands has accessed the ‘Video on Demand’ service, which gives viewers the chance to watch decided and current cases via the court’s website. Keen viewers have more than 900 hours of archived footage to choose from.
Clocking up an average of 10,000 views a month over the service’s first six months, only two cases managed to surpass 3,000. The criminal law case of R v Jogee, featuring appearances from the likes of big shot barristers Felicity Gerry QC and Adam Wagner, proved particularly popular, and has been viewed 3,592 times.
But the favourite of all was the compelling case of Barry Beavis, a fish and chip shop owner from Essex who took on a parking company in a contract law dispute about an £85 parking fine. The hearing racked up an unprecedented 3,853 views.
The average time spent watching a video on demand is over 4.5 minutes. Many users flick onto the video very briefly, which suggests that some others are viewing for long periods of time.
The Supreme Court’s live streaming service has also proved popular, with viewers across the world accessing the facility almost 20,000 times a month.
Lapping up his online celeb status, Lord Neuberger, president of the Supreme Court, said that he is very encouraged by these numbers, commenting:
These figures demonstrate considerable appetite among the British public for seeing their top court at work, and that can only be a positive sign. Justice being done openly, so that it can be watched by anyone who wants to see judges at work, is vitally important for public confidence in the judiciary, and it is excellent that today’s technology allows us to enable this at a reasonable cost.