SBS has received strong viewer numbers for its broadcast coverage of the 2014 World Cup from Brazil. Coverage of the tournament on ESPN and ABC in the United States has seen record numbers for that market. However the real growth story is the number of users going online to follow the action from Brazil.
According to FIFA, leading content delivery network provider Akamai has confirmed that the 2014 World Cup is the biggest event in terms of video content streaming on record. To date 24 million unique users have already watched some 15 million hours of content through FIFA’s multimedia services solutions alone.
The FIFA World Cup “white-label” second screen app has been downloaded more than 10 million times in more than 20 broadcast territories since its launch at the start of June, with up to three million fans accessing videos, statistics and live match content each day.
Manager of Sales and Distribution at FIFA TV Stefan Wildemann said:
“These figures show just how fast our industry is adapting to a truly multimedia world.”
In Australia, rights holder SBS has a superb digital offering and has seen strong user numbers for its World Cup digital product lineup. Last month SBS reported that:
- its World Game website had 395,000 unique browsers;
- its World Game mobile app had 73,000 unique users; and
- there had been 526,000 World Cup video stream views served on sbs.com.au, SBS On Demand and The World Game Mobile App.
With the tournament final now just around the corner, expect online audience numbers to continue to grow.
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