Football World Cup: Some Online Numbers

The final tally on online and mobile viewers might take some time to compile by the research firms, but some revenues and other numbers from around the world:
— In China, portal Sina.com generated 70 million Yuan ($8.7 million) in World Cup-related advertising revenue during the first several weeks of the tournament…it recorded 40 million users on its World Cup related pages, 1.1 million blog postings, and 2.3 million forum posts.
— In Korea, portal Daum earned 5.5 billion won in total ad profits for the World Cup. The company had sold seven ad packages combining clips and banners – five packages each worth 500 million won and two priced at 1.5 billion won – by May.
— In UK, BBC received more than 1.7 million requests via its broadband service to watch live World Cup matches in the first two weeks of the tournament.
— Some UK online numbers following England’s exit from the World Cup. BBC will be releasing its online numbers later.
— In U.S., Hitwise reports that the Yahoo FIFA World Cup website received more visits than the official site for MLB. It was the fifth most visited Web site in the sports category for the week ending June 24, 2006, accounting for 4.1 percent of U.S. category visits.
— Also in U.S., the World Cup has also been the most viewed event ever on ESPN360, ESPN’s broadband service that is available in more than 8 million homes via affiliated (Adelphia and Verizon) broadband providers. From June 9 through July 1, ESPN360 live streaming simulcasts of the games have had more than 2.3 million hits.
— In Australia, Mobile TV gained some traction, where match times were unfavorable for conventional viewing, with games played during the middle of the night. Hutchison 3, an operator in Australia, said customers had connected to mobile highlights or full-match broadcasts about 300,000 times in the first two weeks of the World Cup, before Australia was eliminated.
— In India, internet use in India has grown exponentially since 2002, when the last World Cup tournament was held, from about 8 million then to 38.5 million today. Hence, opportunities.