England vs. Uruguay – Radio streaming wins as England loses

For England, the World Cup dream is over for another four years before it truly got started. Luis Suarez and the Uruguayan team was consigned England to a second defeat and an early flight home. But while England was losing in São Paulo, streaming radio apps sealed a win as people took to their smartphones to keep up-to-date with the action as it unfolded.

What does this mean for smartphones?

Particularly for males, streaming radio apps were one of the key categories to see an uplift during the match last Thursday. In particular, the BBC iPlayer Radio app and TuneIn radio both saw an increase in usage compared to the previous week. In contrast, surprisingly few people turned to the ITV Player app to live stream their coverage, suggesting people still consider streaming video content on their handsets as too data intensive and therefore expensive.

Looking across smartphone usage more widely, sport related content saw an expected increase, with over 15% of male users visiting a sport related site or app. The BBC sport website was the most visited site over the two hours. Meanwhile, Sky Sports’ Live Football Score Centre, LiveScore, and the official FIFA app all placed among the top 25 most visited mobile properties by males during the match. However, this uplift for sport was not purely confined to men. The BBC Sport website and Sky’s Score Centre saw female users double compared to the same time the previous week.

England ended their disappointing campaign against Costa Rica on Tuesday. While many people are still at work for the 5pm kick-off, it will be interesting to see if even more people turn to streaming radio to follow England to try and restore some pride.

Perhaps with Wimbledon starting on June 23^rd, many will turn to the tennis to see some national success!

For more mobile insights from the World Cup and other current data, visit Our Thinking page.

Babita Earle is Head of GfK UK Digital Market Intelligence. For more information, contact her at babita.earle@gfk.com.