Non-swipe link: http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/137521-the-tech-behind-fe...

I've been curious for a long time why Ziff Davis devotes so much attention to spamming HN. And then today it clicked after I saw this story at the top or /r/technology submitted a couple hours after it was popular on HN.

HN provides a vector for popular spam submissions here to be legitimately submitted on Reddit, without all the hassle of spam detection and moderators getting in the way.

This podcast has an interview that explains the camera tech used http://www.fxguide.com/therc/red_centre_073/

Here's a video overview of the (highly specialized) skydiving rig used: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SErtpdKLsM4#t=5m20s

i wonder what the final price tag on this was? has anyone seen a number put on it?

Whatever it is, I imagine it was well worth it for the primary sponsor, Red Bull. A lot of the tech was developed just for this jump, so it would be difficult to get a final price tag without including R&D costs (which are already tricky).

Yup, definitely worth it! Imagine almost 5 million people essentially watching an almost 3 hour long (very interesting and groundbreaking!) Red Bull commercial around the world.

I think if we did the math at base advertising/marketing rates - this project would still work out quite cheap for that kind of exposure!

Daring indeed!

Well, looking at the math I see them getting about $6,615,000 worth of ad-time (not counting news or social media, just the video stream)

The math: 7.35 average daytime CPM[1] * 5 Million (5,000 thousand) viewers, watching for an average of 90 minutes (* 180 30-second spots) each.

That is: $7.35 * 5000 * 180 = $6,615,000

Of course if the news coverage mentioned "RED BULL SPONSORED DIVER..." then my number gets blown out of the water.

[1] http://infoacrs.com/a/tvads.html Daytime, spot TV, CPM average

I have seen the number of around $50 million mentioned. But am not sure where anymore.

Big expense but the exposure is estimated to be worth hundreds of millions if not billions.