World Cup In Numbers: Digital Stats For The Greatest Show On Earth

Here’s how the 2010 World Cup in South Africa plays out by the numbers online…

– Five million UK adults will watch matches online at home (source: Starcom MediaVest).

– 2.6 million will watch at work (source: Starcom MediaVest).

– Seven percent of UK people expect to watch a live or catch-up game online (source: PwC).

– 1 in every 150 UK searches is for World Cup (source: Hitwise, week ending June 5).

– UK weekly visits to sports sites are up 11.5 percent, to highest rate since April’s Grand National (source: Hitwise, week ending June 5).

– Most searched-for footballer: Rio Ferdinand in UK, Cristiano Ronaldo in France, USA, Brazil, Australia, NZ (source: Hitwise, week ending June 5).

– 25 matches will be shown in 3D, including on ESPN (NYSE: DIS) in the U.S.

– Tournament will add 1 to 2 percent to UK and French TV ad sales ($30 to $70 million) (source: Screen Digest).

– LCD TV searches jumped 371 percent from May to June (source: Twenga).

– World Cup 2014: 15 percent of global viewing could be via VOD (source: PwC).

– Biggest marketing buzz: Nike, with 30.2 percent of blog, forum and social network mentions, ahead of Adidas (14.4 percent), despite not being an official sponsor (source: Nielsen).

– Biggest fans: Spanish (source: Facebook’s “passion index“).

– At the 2006 World Cup, Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) Sports’ usual U.S. audience of “less affluent, Hispanic urban dwellers” was joined by an influx of affluent “techno-yuppies” who shop at Banana Republic (source: Hitwise).

– Mobile TV viewing could increase by 74 percent (source: Orange).

– More than a million UK men aged 16-34 will watch on mobile during the day (source: Starcom MediaVest).

– Streaming a game to mobile eats 400Mb. “There is a high probability that networks could become saturated” (source: Deloitte).