The BBC and ITV celebrated streaming records, as viewers flocked to the iPlayer and ITV Hub/ITVX to stream coverage of World Cup games featuring England and Wales.
ITV’s coverage of Wales v USA peaked with 13 million viewers tuning in across TV and streaming, to see the draw in their opening group game. This helped ITV to record its biggest day of the year so far for streaming, with 13.4 million streams throughout the day. ITV is currently midway through the rollout of ITVX, which has already replaced ITV Hub on some devices.
The BBC meanwhile broke its all time live streaming record (so far) with coverage of England’s World Cup opener against Iran. Within less than 24 hours, the game had received over 8 million streaming requests. On TV, a peak audience of 8.1 million tuned into BBC One during the game.
The lunchtime kick-off meant many viewers opted to stream coverage from their mobile or work device. The BBC reported issues with BBC Account sign-ins during the game, but wider issues with watching the iPlayer live stream were thought to be network related, with a surge of internet traffic reported during the game. Unfortunately, mobile and work networks are not already geared up to cater for a large influx of streamers, which leaves users prone to difficulties streaming.
Streamers also face a delay of up to two minutes compared to counterparts watching via traditional TV services or listening to the radio.
Ratings sources: BBC/ITV press statements