Out of Home viewing and usage of non-TV platforms adds 47% to daily World Cup TV average audience

 ESPN Research+Analytics, working with data from Knowledge Networks, estimates that out-of-home viewing and usage of non-TV platforms adds 47% to ESPN’s daily World Cup TV average audience.  Additionally, different parts of the U.S. are consuming the World Cup on television in different ways.  The Eastern time zone gets the greatest audience lift from out-of-home TV viewing (18%), while the Mountain and Pacific time zones have the greatest percent of time-shifted viewing (16% and 13% respectively).  These patterns make sense, as East coast viewers are at work when two of the three matches are played, and seek out-of-home alternatives, while West coast viewers aren’t awake when the matches start and therefore record them for later viewing.

On television, through the third Sunday of the 2010 World Cup, the ESPN networks are showing a 58% increase among viewers compared to the 2006 World Cup. ESPN networks set records with both the USA vs. Algeria match on June 23 and the USA vs. Ghana match on June 26.  While Team USA’s presence from the tourney will be missed, ratings aren’t solely dependent on an American presence.  ESPN networks’ World Cup average is still up 34% among viewers as compared to 2006, if all USA matches are excluded from the averages.

Working with data from Knowledge Networks and Nielsen, ESPN estimates that 132 million persons aged 2+ have consumed World Cup content across all ESPN platforms — that’s more than two out of five Americans.  Of that 132 million people, 90% watched TV, 27% used the Internet, 11% listened to Radio, 7% used mobile and 2% read ESPN The Magazine.

Multiplatform consumers account for 26% of the users but represent 49% of the usage of World Cup content on the average day.  This is because the multiplatform user is a heavier user, spending an average 3 hours 58 minutes consuming World Cup content compared to 1 hour 25 minutes for the TV-only viewer.  The more platforms used, the more time spent with our content.  In fact, the one percent of persons who consumed the World Cup on all five platforms — TV, Internet, Mobile, Radio and Magazine — averaged 8 hours 8 minutes of World Cup usage per day.

Source: Knowledge Networks’ Total Touch, June 11-27, 2010; Nielsen (where noted)

 Digital Media Details

As the World Cup rolls on, performance across ESPN’s digital platforms has remained very strong.  Usage on ESPN3.com was highlighted by the USA vs. Algeria game on June 23, which resulted in the largest U.S. audience ever for a single sporting event on the web.  Other ESPN digital outlets saw record traffic that day as well — ESPNSoccernet received more visits than any other day in its history and ESPN Mobile products had their most-trafficked day to-date for World Cup content across all of ESPN’s Mobile platforms.

ESPN.com

• World Cup content on ESPN.com (includes ESPN Soccernet and ESPN Deportes/copa-mundial) delivered 87.5 million visits and 305.9 million page views from June 11-27.
• Users have spent an average of just under 10 minutes per visit engaging with World Cup content.
• ESPN.com’s front page, which prominently features World Cup news, video and scores, has seen 170.3 million visits and 373.7 million page views for June 11-27.
• 26.4 million video starts came from World Cup highlights, news and analysis content on ESPN.com.
• Meanwhile, the ESPN.com Homepage, which constantly displays World Cup scores, news, and video is averaging over 5.6 million unique users per day and the average time spent on the page is more than 6 minutes.

ESPN Mobile

• ESPN’s mobile offerings (ESPN Mobile Web, ESPN 2010 FIFA World Cup App, ESPN ScoreCenter App) generated 70.3 million visits and 385.5 million page views to World Cup content.
• ESPN’s World Cup App has generated 3.1 million video views to date for World Cup highlights, news and analysis content.
• Viewers to matches on ESPN Mobile TV have spent a total of over 40 million minutes with that offering through games of June 23.

ESPN3.com

• Live and replay World Cup matches have been viewed by almost 5.8 million unique viewers, generating 674.8 million minutes of viewing (nearly two hours per viewer).
• ESPN3.com’s average audience during the USA-Algeria match (which also featured simultaneous England-Slovenia coverage) was higher than the P2+ audience for 69 cable networks in the time period.

Source: Omniture, June 11-27, 2010 (Nielsen for cable net delivery)

 About ESPN XP

ESPN XP is a research initiative unprecedented in scope, to study consumer behavior around major sporting events beginning with the 2010 FIFA World Cup. The research collective, which includes 15 top-tier companies as well as the Wharton Interactive Media Initiative, will attempt to measure media usage and advertiser effects across all media platforms – TV, radio, Internet, mobile and print.  ESPN will be releasing ESPN XP findings from the 2010 FIFA World Cup throughout the month long tournament (June 11-July 11).  Comprehensive ESPN XP World Cup findings will be shared after the conclusion of the event.