The “12-12-12″ concert held in New York City on Wednesday night to raise money for Hurricane Sandy relief efforts was sampled by at least 20 million people, according to estimates by the measurement firm Nielsen.

The firm said Friday that 19.3 million Americans watched at least a few minutes of the event, subtitled “The Concert for Sandy Relief,” via one of the 15 Nielsen-rated channels that carried it.

Other smaller channels not rated by Nielsen also carried it, as did dozens of Web sites. Organizers said there were millions of Web streams during the concert, but those are not included in the Nielsen TV total.

Nielsen, in a blog post on Friday, described the concert as “the most widely distributed live musical event in history, accessible to nearly two billion people worldwide on television, radio and the Internet.”

Most of the American channels that carried the concert were relatively small, so the average TV audience at any time during the concert was 5.2 million. An earlier concert and telethon for storm victims, “Hurricane Sandy: Coming Together” on NBC, had an average of 6.2 million viewers.

Held at Madison Square Garden, the concert featured Paul McCartney, the Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel, Alicia Keys and a full house of other artists who appeared in support of the Robin Hood Relief Fund. The fund has not announced how much money was raised.

A version of this article appeared in print on 12/15/2012, on page C3 of the NewYork edition with the headline: Nearly 20 Million See ‘12-12-12’ Concert on TV.

Article source: http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/14/at-least-20-million-tuned-to-sandy-relief-concert/?partner=rss&emc=rss