JUN 24, 1997, M2 Communications - The live Internet broadcast of The Tibetan Freedom Concert drew the largest audience in Internet history. Almost 90,000 people tuned in to watch and listen to the concert broadcast on June 7th and 8th. Virgin Net retained the exclusive European rights to the concert and drew it s largest ever single audience of 12,000 people.

10,500 Cybercafes across the world broadcast the event for visiting customers. Thousands of people tuned in to the concert to see artists such as U2, Alanis Morissette, Bjork and Noel Gallagher perform live in New York. It was Noel's first gig since he tied the knot only hours earlier.

The artists were joining the Free Tibet Campaign's call for the release of jailed Tibetan musician, Ngawang Choepel. Ngawang was arrested whilst filming music and dance in Tibet. He was accused by the Chinese of spying and sentenced to 18 years.

Virgin Net recently came top in Practical Internet magazine's survey of good value Internet Service Providers, adding to its "Best Service Provider of 1997" award already gained from What PC? magazine. The service has proved popular with customers who are voting with their feet with over 10,000 joining Virgin Net each month since the service was launched by Richard Branson last November.