World Cup to redefine viewing habits

TIME zone differences will cause America’s “soccer” fans to watch the World Cup live on cell phones and computers.

The World Cup will get more online coverage than any major sporting event yet.

Watching highlights the next day on TV or YouTube will suddenly seem a downright ancient way to keep up with the action.

Walt Disney Co networks ESPN and ABC, which are broadcasting the games in the US, will stream 54 games live on the newly launched ESPN3.com, formerly ESPN360. The games are free to those in the US who get their internet from a service provider affiliated with ESPN, including AT&T, Verizon, Comcast and many others. The 10 games that will air live on ABC won’t be available on ESPN3.com, but all 64 matches in the Cup will be available live on mobile devices to customers whose plans include TV on their phones.

Univision Communications has the Spanish-language broadcasting rights in the US, and it, too, will have games available on Univision.com and Univision Movil.

The digital coverage will be an especially important component for the World Cup because US audiences will be watching many of the games – all being played in South Africa – during the day, possibly on their computers at work.

Comparing the digital experiences of the 2010 World Cup to the 2006 World Cup, Josh Kosner, senior vice president and general manager of ESPN Digital Media, said: “Things have changed utterly. This will be the biggest and most powerful demonstration of this, and it’s just the start. It’s the play book, it’s the blueprint for what’s coming.”

NBC’s online coverage of the last Winter Olympics – also an international, daytime event – was extensive, drawing 45m video streams.

Traffic to the website NBCOlympics.com more than tripled from the 2006 Winter Games, with 45.7m total visits compared with 13.3m in 2006. That happened even though NBC held a lot of the footage for its prime-time broadcasts. ESPN expects worldwide online traffic for the World Cup to double or triple that of 2006. ESPN has several, such as an ESPN Radio app with live play-by-play audio. Turner Sports’ SportsNow app has links to Facebook and Twitter for “trash-talk directly from the app”.

The World Cup may also be the benchmark in the evolution of mobile TV, which is common in South Korea, growing in the rest of Asia, Africa and South America, but nascent in the US and Europe. ESPN has partnered with AT&T, Sprint, Verizon, FLO TV and MobiTV to bring games to cell phones.

Meanwhile, a World Cup iPhone app from KT Corp in South Korea includes a “glow stick mode” that lights up the screen with fluorescent colours when the phone is shaken.

That still leaves one vital question: Where’s Becks? Fear not. David Beckham has signed on with Yahoo as its global football ambassador. Yahoo has a 24/7 Beckham channel to share his every waking thought.