This year’s FIFA World Cup features a record number of matches, and many games are played late at night or during the early hours of the morning for audiences in the Netherlands. Fortunately, NOS Sport produces an excellent 15–20 minute highlights package for every match, available via the NOS website and app, NPO Start, and the NOS Sport YouTube channel.
The latter has proven particularly successful. Between 15 June and 19 July, no fewer than 909,000 people watched the extended highlights on the YouTube channel. The broadcaster’s own platforms also performed well: 313,000 people watched the extended highlights via NOS and/or NPO Start (website and app).
Combined, 1,073,000 football fans enjoyed World Cup coverage through these highlights between 15 June and 19 July. These figures relate specifically to the longer highlight packages and do not include the short 1–3 minute clips.
On average, these 1,073,000 viewers watched highlights on 3.1 of the 34 days during the period measured. This demonstrates that the highlights served as a valuable complement to the many ways in which audiences could follow the World Cup.
This format proved especially popular among younger audiences. Of all viewers watching the highlights on YouTube and the broadcaster’s own platforms, 51% were under the age of 35, while 75% were male. On average, viewers aged 13–34 watched one or more extended highlight packages on 4.6 of the 34 days measured.
Overall, it is fair to conclude that the NOS highlights provided a welcome addition during this expanded World Cup, featuring 104 matches instead of the traditional 64. The time difference with the host countries also meant that many matches took place late in the evening or even during the night for Dutch audiences. The decision to distribute the content not only through NOS and NPO Start (website and app) but also via the NOS Sport YouTube channel was—remaining in football terminology—a bullseye.
For more information about the continuous research and its findings, please contact Jeroen Nikkel, Consultant Media Measurement (jeroen.nikkel@gfkniqmedia.com).
About GfK GXL
GXL (GfK Crossmedia Link) is GfK’s large-scale cross-media panel, established in 2015. Online, television, radio, podcast, and retail media consumption are measured daily through passive, single-source measurement. In addition, information is regularly collected through surveys on reading behaviour and more than 350 other background characteristics, including subscription types for (S)AVOD and music streaming services.
