Football Comes Home on the Internet in Euro 2004

With the football now over, the latest analysis from Nielsen//NetRatings shows the BBC Sport site attracting the largest audiences in the UK throughout the Euro 2004 tournament.

On average, the BBC Sport site had one million British visitors per week during the three weeks of the competition, and at its peak, when England was still in the contest, the site attracted over 1.2 million visitors.



Throughout the tournament daily analysis from Nielsen//NetRatings showed changing usage trends. For example, on the weekday that England played Switzerland, many people were at work and Internet audiences were at the highest they had been in the UK since Euro 2004 kicked off. On other games played at weekends the viewing behaviour changed - audiences peaked the day preceding and the day following a game, rather than on the day.

As Gabrielle Prior, European Data Analyst says 'This trend is to be expected, as fans were able to get their news and updates on TV or radio, but in the periods before and after games, fans were turning to the web. The Internet offered different content, including background information, player profiles, team updates, interactive content including video replays, games and even betting - whilst on other more traditional media, fans could see the game live but for a limited period of time. Sponsors of Internet content in the future may want to know what days of the week, and times of day the games are planned before deciding where to spend their promotional pound'.