While the industry continues to debate what should and should not be classified as TV, and as flatscreen televisions in many living rooms get ever bigger, one trend remains clear: UK viewers are still turning to smaller personal devices, such as smartphones and tablets, to access the streaming apps of traditional broadcasters. Major live events appear to drive significant spikes in that usage.
During the 2026 FIFA World Cup, UKOM-endorsed data in Ipsos iris showed clear audience spikes for both BBC iPlayer and ITVX mobile apps on England match days, highlighting the role of smartphones and tablets in driving broadcaster streaming audiences during major live events.
BBC iPlayer’s app audience hit a World Cup high of 3.7 million on 6 July, when England faced Mexico. ITVX reached its peak during England’s quarter-final against Norway, attracting 2.8 million smartphone and tablet users. Even on the day of the Final (19 July), BBC iPlayer maintained a commanding lead, drawing 2.9 million users compared with ITVX’s 1.1 million.
BBC iPlayer’s app audience was notably higher than ITVX’s across the World Cup on all but 4 days – the dates of the three England games and the France v Spain semi-final which were all shown on ITVX.
When looking at total time spent on the apps, the spike was even more marked for BBC iPlayer on the day of the England v Mexico game. Given the match kicked off at 2am, it is likely that a significant amount of these minutes was spent viewing BBC iPlayer at home rather than on the move – unless those who went to the pub didn’t get a very good view or people were watching highlights on their way to work!
When analysing apps by device, the data shows both BBC iPlayer and ITVX attracted far larger audiences on smartphones than tablets throughout the tournament and although tablet audiences rose on match days, the smartphone was the dominant device for driving app reach.
It is interesting that while more people used smartphone apps, total time spent for BBC iPlayer was often higher on tablets – perhaps because the bigger screen size contributed to higher engagement. For example, on the day of the England v Mexico game, the average minutes spent by users of BBC iPlayer’s tablet app (94 mins) was 3x higher than those viewing on a smartphone (31.5 mins). This meant there was little difference between the smartphone and tablet app’s total BBC iPlayer minutes on the big England match days.
Despite competition from Wimbledon and Keir Starmer’s resignation, England matches aligned closely with app usage during the World Cup. Audience reach and time spent surged on match days, with the biggest peaks reserved for the knock-out rounds as England advanced through the tournament.
