CorpComms Magazine

Three out of ten football fans plan to watch live South Africa games over the Internet, according to a new study by electronics store PC World.

The digital dominance that failed fully to materialise during the election may now be conjured up for the football. South Africa 2010 matches can expect 14 million viewers online, more than for any other World Cup.

PC World was first alerted to the trend, having experienced a 30 per cent surge in sales of Slingboxes, devices used to stream television to laptops and mobile phones, and a 20 per cent rise in sales of power line adaptors, which draw power from the domestic electrical circuit to create a wireless network, in the last fortnight.

SmartPhones are also earning their stripes, with one in ten footie fans hoping to keep their eye on the ball via their Blackberry.

Replays are where the web ensnares most lovers of the beautiful game, with ten per cent more fans watching repeat footage online straight after the match than wait for the television highlights. The World Cup games will be available to download for free from BBC iPlayer and ITV for up to a week after each match.

Jeremy Fennell, category director at PC World, said: 'Internet TV was only just coming into play when England last played in a World Cup tournament. Now, in just four years, football fans are able to watch live and recorded footage from laptops, desktop PCs and mobile phones from just about any location in the UK and across the world.'

Networking forums Facebook and Twitter, both newcomers to the UK social scene since Germany 2006, should be poised to host goal celebrations and commiserations, having been voted the favourite vehicles for keeping in touch with fellow football lovers by a quarter of fans. 

share me: del.icio.us | digg | reddit | Tweet