The television ratings for some of the recent World Cup games were incredible. According to ITV, the audience for the England vs Croatia match on 11 July peaked at 26.6 million. The average audience across the whole game was an only slightly less impressive 24.3 million.
Over the last few years, television has increasingly been described as a poor relation to online entertainment. Indeed, in a tweet reported by Bloomberg, Marc Allera – the head of BT’s consumer brands – said “The World Cup continues to be the only event that makes customers switch off from the internet.”