World Cup Match Breaks Online Viewing Records... Or Does It?

Last week, ESPN claimed to host the largest ever online audience for a sporting event: the United States' World Cup game against Algeria. ESPN said 1.1 million people watched at least some of the USA's 1-0 win as it was streamed online. According to ESPN: "the match averaged 328,000 viewers per minute in... live online coverage. When combined with the simultaneous England vs. Slovenia game, ESPN3.com hit its peak point of viewing... when 513,000 viewers were watching each minute." Adding to these incredible numbers, some 650,000 people watched the game on mobile devices, which ESPN says is also a record.

But before ESPN could make the call to the folks at the Guinness Book of World Records, CBS stood up the next day to claim the record was actually set during the NCAA basketball tournament last March when Brigham Young took on Florida, with a total of 1,115,097 online viewers. ESPN insisted that the 328,000 viewers per minute (as opposed to only 200,000 viewers per minute for the basketball game) is the deciding criterion, but CBS stands by its numbers.

While neither CBS nor ESPN have reached out to Speed Matters to mediate this dispute, it is clear that the real winner is the online viewer. Just a few years ago, that volume of live streaming audio/video would have crippled the network carrying it. The good news is that broadband in the United States has clearly made great strides in that time. But the fact that two separate sporting events have claimed to break and re-break online viewing records just in the past few months underscores how quickly online media consumption is growing. If the United States is going to keep up with increased demand, it needs a broadband network that can not only handle the bandwidth challenges of today, but the exponential growth of tomorrow as well.

ESPN sets recrords following USA game online (ESPN SoccerNet)

Web Caught Up In World Cup Mania (Media Post)