England’s World Cup victory over Sweden on July 7th led to a record-breaking 3.8 million live viewers streaming the event on iPlayer and the BBC Sport website – the BBC’s highest online-viewed live programme in its history.

According to the latest Video Index Report from Ooyala, sports are the main catalyst for mobile growth. Consumers are increasingly “mobile only” when accessing the Internet and there is a growing trend towards streaming side-line interviews, unique camera angles and behind-the-scenes features on smart phones, in addition to the match.

Ooyala’s 2018 Q1 Video Index also revealed that:

• Video plays on smartphones have increased nearly 35 per cent in the past two years, and 15 per cent in the past year
• Plays on tablets were up nearly 55 per cent
• EMEA has seen a year on year growth of 22 per cent in mobile consumption
• Long form content (content longer than 20 minutes) has risen to more than 50 per cent of time watched on every screen globally, whether connected TVs, PCs, tablets, or smartphones
• In EMEA, long-form time watched was highest on CTVs (99 per cent), tablets (95 per cent), PCs (90 per cent) and even hit 88 per cent for smartphones

Meanwhile, just under 20 million viewers tuned into the BBC to watch the match on Saturday afternoon. It dominated viewing figures, taking an 87.7 per cent share of the TV audience. The figures were below the peak of 24 million who saw England’s first knockout game against Colombia on July 3rd, which was shown on ITV. The viewing figures do not take into account the large number of England fans who would have watched the games in pubs and on big screens around the country – with the true figure likely to be much higher.

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