CTAM Summit: ESPN's World Cup Multiplatform Usage Runneth Over

Complete CTAM Summit 2010 coverage

A
record number of people watched the FIFA 2010 World Cup on ESPN. Even
more watched on online and via mobile, listened on radio, checked in
online and perused ESPN the Magazine.

In short, FIFA's
famed futbol tourney provided ESPN with a unique laboratory to examine
multiplatform behavior of consumer and the results of cross-platform
advertising.

The first take away from the study, dubbed ESPN XP,
was that multiple platforms don't cannibalize TV viewing, said Glenn
Enoch, vice president integrated media research, at ESPN. In fact, the
more platforms consumers used, the more TV they watched on average.

For
the big numbers, ESPN's research found that 160.5 million American's
consumed ESPN content over 31 days. It also had an average TV audience
of 3.3 million. It found that 22% of Americans tried a new ESPN platform
over the course of the tourney and when the final whistle sounded, the
average World Cup consumer averaged using 2.3 platforms per day. The 1.5
million viewers watching World Cup matches online provided a 46% lift
in viewership, bringing the total number of consumers to 4.8 million.

Click here for the full story at Multichannel.com

Jon Lafayette

Jon has been business editor of Broadcasting+Cable since 2010. He focuses on revenue-generating activities, including advertising and distribution, as well as executive intrigue and merger and acquisition activity. Just about any story is fair game, if a dollar sign can make its way into the article. Before B+C, Jon covered the industry for TVWeek, Cable World, Electronic Media, Advertising Age and The New York Post. A native New Yorker, Jon is hiding in plain sight in the suburbs of Chicago.