With the 2010 FIFA World Cup just a few days away, June 11th will bring with it more than just a rabid public appetite for soccer. It will also spark a boom for mobile content providers plugged into soccer’s grandest event.
Based on the findings from Nielsen, better than one in five mobile subscribers around the world will utilize the mobile web to follow the action and stay on top of World Cup happenings.
Even though soccer is a far more popular and ubiquitously televised sport around the world than it is in the United States, nearly one-quarter of all U.S. subscribers admitted that they would follow the World Cup via their mobile phone.
While users in Brazil and Ireland will rival the US in percentage of sports fans turning to the mobile web for coverage, Venezuela leads the pack with 27% planning to utilize the mobile web for World Cup news.
In many parts of Europe, however, but especially in Spain, mobile usage tapers off dramatically as most fans will be glued to their television almost exclusively for the action.
“Where it gets really interesting is with TV usage: live TV broadcast and mobile Internet access were moderately negatively correlated (-0.46), indicating that the less likely you are to watch the live TV broadcast the more likely you are to seek out the information with your mobile phone,” says Nielsen Telecom Practice senior VP Roger Entner.
“At the same time delayed broadcasting/highlights was completely randomly correlated (-0.03) with using Internet on the phone to find out about the World Cup. This indicates that people want to know about the games immediately and not get rid of the television viewing experience.”
