Western Europe Will Cure Its World Cup Fever with Mobile TV

June 7, 2010

Are you ready for some football? Or soccer, as Americans call it?

Just in time for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, which starts on Friday, we’ve published a report looking at how this global sporting event will drive mobile TV adoption across Europe. The report’s name -- Mobile TV and the 2010 FIFA World Cup: Scoring Big in Western Europe – gives away the punchline: We’re projecting that mobile TV adoption in Western European markets, especially those where the national teams are tournament favorites, will get a nice boost from World Cup excitement even after the tournament is over.

For Central and Eastern Europe, however, the picture isn’t quite so rosy:

Pyramid Research projects that the 2010 World Cup will boost the uptake of mobile video and mobile TV services in Western European (WE) markets, while the effect on the service adoption in most Central and Eastern European (CEE) markets is likely to be negligible. In 2010 the number of mobile video users (including mobile TV) will increase by 8.4m in WE, while in CEE, the market will see only 1.5m additional mobile video users. The service adoption gap between the two regions will further widen throughout the forecast period.

Why such a disparity? There are several reasons we discuss in the report. One is that most Western Europeans have higher levels of disposable income. Another is that Western Europeans have longer commute times during which they can either watch live matches or catch up on tournament highlights.

For more details, please download the complete report here.

Update:  If you’re a soccer fan who happens to be on the Sprint network in the US, there’s some good World Cup news for you too.

— Stela Bokun, Senior Analyst

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