Results from World Cup broadcast data from ESPN XP’s 15 data suppliers continue to be gathered and analyzed for a comprehensive report to be presented to the industry this fall. The final report will measure media usage and advertiser effects across all media platforms, including television, radio, Internet, mobile and print.
Here are some preliminary findings:
- 160.5 million people — aged two and up — consumed World Cup content across all ESPN platforms. That’s 55 percent of all Americans.
- Putting the World Cup content on all platforms proved successful. On an average day, 90 percent of users watched ESPN content on TV, 27 percent used the Internet, 11 percent listened to radio, 6 percent used mobile and 2 percent read “ESPN The Magazine.”
- Since 90 percent of daily users watched on TV, it follows that 10 percent of people watching ESPN World Cup coverage did so solely on some platform other than television.
- A major focus of the ESPN XP initiative was the sports fan with cross-platform usage. On the average day, 26 percent of viewers who saw World Cup content on ESPN were multiplatform consumers — using television with some other platform.
- Multiplatform consumers accounted for 26 percent of the viewers, but represented 47 percent of the usage of World Cup content on the average day.
- The multiplatform viewer was a heavier user, spending an average three hours, 29 minutes consuming World Cup content — two hours, 24 minutes of that watching on TV, compared with one hour, 24 minutes for the TV-only viewer.
- Multiplatform consumers were more likely to be younger and male. Males were more likely to be multiplatform users (30 percent) and non-TV users (11 percent).
- Out-of-home viewing and usage of non-TV platforms added 46 percent to the daily World Cup TV average audience, found Knowledge Networks. The 2010 World Cup ranks as the ESPN networks’ most-watched World Cup ever. ESPN TV networks delivered more than 3.2 million average viewers per live game, an increase of 41 percent over the 2006 World Cup.
- World Cup viewers showed different patterns of use across the country. The highest rated markets included Miami, New York, Washington D.C., San Diego and San Francisco. West Coast TV viewers had nearly twice as much time-shifted viewing as viewers on the East Coast (12.5 percent vs. 6.4 percent). They were also more likely to use non-TV platforms. However, East Coast viewers were more likely to watch TV in out-of-home locations than West Coast viewers.
- Each platform had a different pattern of out-of-home usage. Radio had the greatest proportion of out-of-home usage, accounting for more than half (54 percent) of radio listening. Internet and mobile were in the second tier, with over a quarter of usage of each done out-of-home. The platforms with the biggest percent of in-home usage were TV (88 percent) and magazine (81 percent).
