Associated Press has said that a “busy” year for high profile news stories has seen demand for its television services reach a record high in the first six months of 2011.

The news agency’s average monthly hit rate – the number of times a single video is used by a broadcaster – hit 260,000, up from 160,000 in 2010.

The agency broke its own records in March when – driven by civil unrest in Libya and the Japanese tsunami – it recorded 300,000 hits from its clientele. Mark Davies, deputy director of news, told Press Gazette that “the only other time I can recall it being this busy in the newsroom was after the tsunami in Asia [2004].

“We’ve literally had to hop-scotch crews from one disaster to the next, but the demand is so great from broadcasters to get footage to them. It means we’ve been pulling people from every region in the world, and moving them as quickly as we can. A lot of people haven’t been home for six or seven weeks,” he said.

Associated Press obtained a selection of high profile exclusives throughout the first half of the year, including making the first live broadcast from behind rebel lines in Libya and being first on the scene when the Japanese tsunami resulted in a nuclear meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear power plant.

(Source: Press Gazette)

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