90 TVBEurope Data Centre
FIFA TV’s World Cup breaks streaming records
By Nicolas Bourdon, SVP Marketing, EVS
T
he 2014 FIFA World Cup™ brought us a number of fi rsts, including 4K and 8K coverage, and even 360˚ video capture. But probably the most signifi cant advance in enriching the fan experience and bringing fans closer to the action came through the developments in online, second screen and multimedia services. Up front, FIFA TV recognised the huge potential demand for online services from fans who wanted to watch the action wherever they happened to be at the time, and from those who wanted to add to the experience through extra content on second screens. FIFA TV commissioned HBS, the host broadcaster at the event, to design and implement the innovative multimedia distribution services. EVS’ new XT3 live production server and distribution technology, C-Cast, was central to making this additional multimedia content available to audiences around the world. The whole broadcast operation reached epic proportions. In total, 40 FIFA media rights licensees booked around 120 multimedia services for match coverage. This gave them the ability to stream live multiple feeds, effectively providing video on demand coverage from up to 24 camera angles. Take-up statistics are mind-boggling: more data was streamed from the World Cup than any other event in history. This was confi rmed by content delivery network provider Akamai. During the Netherlands versus Argentina semi-fi nal, online viewers were pushing the peak streaming rate to a massive 6.9 terabytes per second. FIFA developed its own white label solutions for the web, tablets and smartphones. Rights holders could then tailor these ready-made apps with their own branding to access the multimedia services. More than ten million apps were downloaded, and
over three million users a day chose to enrich their experience through the app. And over the course of the tournament, more than 24 million unique users watched tens of millions of hours of content through the multimedia solutions alone. “More and more football fans want to watch high quality, live coverage of matches on their tablets or mobile phones, as well as on their televisions,” said Stefan Wildemann, manager of sales and distribution at FIFA TV. “These fi gures show just how fast our industry is adapting to a truly multimedia world. Only on the digital platforms can fans watch the FIFA World Cup from every possible angle.”
That adds to the biggest television audiences in the event’s history. In the United States alone – not normally a ‘soccer’ loving nation – a record- breaking 5.3 million unique viewers watched the knockout match between Belgium and USA on ESPN and Univision. Audited worldwide viewing fi gures are hard to determine, but it seems likely that close to a billion people watched the fi nal between Argentina and Germany. The coverage and audience viewing statistics of the 2014 tournament underlines its success
“We are proud to say that this FIFA World Cup has been the biggest multimedia sporting event in history, with more people watching matches and highlights online than ever before.” Niclas Ericson, FIFA director of TV
at meeting the rapidly changing expectations of a global ‘TV’ audience. Niclas Ericson, FIFA director of TV, summed it up: “We are proud to say that this FIFA World Cup has been the biggest multimedia sporting event in history, with more people watching matches and highlights online than ever before.” The 2014 FIFA World Cup is living proof of a new era of media consumption for large sporting events, taking ‘TV’ viewing way beyond just the box in the corner of the living room towards a media anytime, anywhere future.
www.tvbeurope.com September 2014
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