June 24, 2010 by Jen
The BBCs live web stream has hit an all-time viewing record, following yesterday’s England match against Slovenia. Statistics released by KC, the BBC’s internet service provider, show that the match created an increase in web viewing figures of over thirty percent.
Viewers were able to follow the game over the BBC’s online live stream, and the facility led to a peak number of viewers, at 800,000 at one single time. This in itself is an all-time high for concurrent streams, even though figures for overall access to the service will be even higher, as unique user access is not calculated.
Faith in ITV’s ability to provide reliable viewing access for the World Cup has been criticized recently, following the channel’s poor performance during the opening game between South Africa and Mexico. The ITV servers were unable to handle the high demand for the game online. The BBC appear to have handled the swelling viewing figures well.
The BBC has released a statement saying that they had “set aside as much capacity on our servers as we reasonably can” but cautioned that individual broadband access could have an effect on viewing quality.
It is thought the popularity of the online viewing service is due to the fact that employees in organisations around the UK tuned in online while still at work. A recent survey of business by Sage discovered that 80% of firms had failed to make any provision for their staff to see the game. Already, the World Cup has smashed records for online viewing, with traffic for news sites reaching over 12 million visitors per minute during the games, compared to the previous record of 8.5 million visitors per minute during the US presidential election.
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