Data: England fans watching on terrestrial, mobile
July 6, 2018
Findings from UK mobile telco EE suggest that its network has seen broadband Internet usage drop drastically throughout all World Cup games. Mobile demand rose as fans streamed the match on the go or moved offline altogether and tuned in on terrestrial television – as well as sharing their reactions on social during half time, at 90 minutes and before penalty shoot-out took place at the end of the Colombia vs England game.
Main findings:
- Throughout all the World Cup games, EE has seen broadband Internet usage drop and mobile usage surge, with viewers watching on terrestrial television or streaming the match on the go and taking to social to share their reactions.
- EE experienced its lowest broadband demand for a year during the game against Colombia – suggesting that the World Cup is the only event that actually pulls people away from the Internet.
- Facebook demand increased throughout the match, with usage spiking at 188 gigabits of traffic on the EE network every second as Eric Dier slotted the winning penalty and fans took to social media to share their celebrations.
- All World Cup games are popular at this stage of the competition, as proven by the rising EE mobile traffic on BBC as the Sweden vs Switzerland game came to a close. But more than three times as many people tuned in to watch the England vs Colombia game.
- Around 20 per cent of mobile viewers watched the ITV broadcast match via Sky Go
- Mobile viewers dropped the live stream at half time (and in between 90mins and the start of extra time) to go on to social media.
- The amount of fans watching on mobile shot up as soon as the game went to penalties
- Social media traffic also perfectly mirrors the game – peak before kick-off, peak at half time and end of normal time, and a huge surge, particularly for Snapchat, at the end of the penalty shootout as fans uploaded their celebrations to share with friends.