FIFA Fever – How Will You Follow The World Cup?
The FIFA World Cup tournament begins today, and soccer (or football) fans are getting geared up to follow the action. TV sales are up in Europe, where the games are hugely popular. As a casual sports fan I plan on simply watching a few of the games on television. However, rabid sports fans will prove to us that where there’s a will (and a device), there’s a way to catch the matches almost anywhere.
I consulted our in-house sports fan and research analyst Ben Arnold to find out how he will be tracking the World Cup. “I’ll definitely be tweeting, checking tweets and watching highlights on my phone, I’ll be watching live in HD, and will probably check out some blogs,” he said. Ben also brought up the point that “this will be the first Twitter-era World Cup and the first since Facebook went mainstream.” Ben’s pick for social network tracking will be Twitscoop, where he looks forward to reading tweets from the international community.
CEA’s recent Sports and Technology Study IV reveals that 35 percent of online adults plan to follow the 2010 World Cup in some way. Like me, 66 percent of World Cup viewers will watch it on TV, with nearly two-fifths of those watching it in high definition. As we have learned with the 2010 Winter Olympics and the NCAA tournament, online viewing has become another popular option for watching big sporting events. We found that 18 percent of World Cup fans are planning on watching the action live online. Mobile is yet another option and the 9 percent of fans that plan on following on their mobile devices will have the support of the major wireless network operators.
While only a small portion of online adults plan on watching the games in 3D, one- in-three sports fans expressed interest in watching sports in 3D in their home in the future. 3DTV is in its infancy, but the World Cup could be one of the most widely watched 3D sports events thus far. Sony plans on demonstrating its 3D technology at CEA’s upcoming Line Shows, and will have additional 3D Experience Pavilions worldwide. Movie theaters in Europe will be showing the games, while 25 of the matches will be broadcast via ESPN 3D on a number of cable and satellite networks in the US.
How do you plan on experiencing the World Cup? Have you found yourself following sports in new ways in the past couple of years?



