BBC Sport sees highest online live viewing since 2012 Olympic Games
This year the BBC brought audiences the most comprehensive digital coverage of Wimbledon ever, with up to 10 live streams and on-demand content available across four screens - PCs, mobiles, tablets and connected TVs.
This, along with coverage of Formula 1’s British Grand Prix, Moto GP and the Confederations Cup saw huge audiences flock to BBC Sport online and access the BBC’s Red Button streams.
Over the last two weeks:
27.08m UK browsers accessed the BBC Sport site – peaking at 6.47m UK browsers on Friday 5 July when Murray beat Janowicz in Wimbledon semi-final
live streams of the BBC’s Wimbledon coverage drove viewing across all online platforms – with 12.7m video requests throughout the Championships – the highest audience for online viewing for the BBC since the London 2012 Olympic Games
access via mobile and tablet remained popular, with 64% of total requests to the BBC Sport site on Sunday 7 July from handheld devices (Wimbledon Men’s Final day) – with a record 1.03m browsers from tablets
a record 3.87m UK browsers visited the BBC’s Formula 1 site in the week of the British Grand Prix, up +0.50m on the previous high this season (the week of the Bahrain Grand Prix)
10.59m people pressed red to watch Wimbledon via the BBC’s Red Button streams, up from 7.17m last year – with a further 1.12m people pressing red to watch the British Grand Prix
The majority of viewers accessed the BBC’s online sport coverage on a PC (51% of total UK requests), followed by mobile (33% of total UK requests), tablets (13% of total UK requests) and connected TVs (0.01% of total UK requests).
Tennis proved the most popular section of the BBC Sport site, with 15.8m UK browsers during the Wimbledon Championships. The top three most-requested matches were: Diokovic vs Del Porto (956,000 requests), Murray vs Verdasco (878,000 requests) and Murray vs Youzhny (539,000 requests).
The top five popular video clips were:
1: Kirsten Flipkens berates loud broadcaster mid-match (402,640 UK requests)
2: John McEnroe left hanging by royal handshake (208,600 UK requests)
3: Andy Murray – the moment Murray won the title (174,540 UK requests)
4: Maria Sharapova shows off her football skills at Wimbledon (154,680 requests)
5: Roger Federer loses to Sergiy Stakhovsky at Wimbledon (130,240 UK requests)
On social media, BBC Sport’s twitter account @bbcsport kept fans up-to-date with the action with breaking news and statistical updates. It was a hit with fans and added over 100,000 new followers during the course of the Championships. BBC Sport’s Facebook page gave viewers behind the scenes coverage of the tournament with daily fan and match action galleries. And, on Instagram, for the first time, BBC Sport provided behind the scenes coverage from Wimbledon other sporting events and added almost 15,000 followers.
Chris Condron, Head of Sport Product, BBC Future Media, said: “The London 2012 Olympic Games set the new bar for digital coverage from the BBC. In the past two weeks, we have seen again the huge audience interest in and appetite for consuming live events digitally - not just for Wimbledon, but for Formula 1 and Glastonbury. Whether at the office, at home or on the go, we continue to take audiences closer to the major events that bring the nation together.”
Ben Gallop, Head of Interactive for BBC Sport, said: “Andy Murray winning the Wimbledon Championships has been a fitting culmination of two weeks of exceptional British sport. Our journalists have been there every step of the way, taking audiences to the heart of the action and giving viewers the ultimate choice to get closer to the sport they love, live, on-demand and on-the-move.”
