London led UK iPlayer World Cup viewing but inner-London areas lagged on England’s late-night win

BBC News reported that 64% of UK iPlayer accounts streamed at least some World Cup content between 11 June and 7 July. The figures cover live matches, highlights and analysis programmes but exclude games shown only on ITV. London ranked as the highest region overall, with 13 of the top 14 postcode areas located in and around the city.

Almost 80% of iPlayer accounts in Southall, Ilford and East London accessed the content. Manchester recorded the highest viewing outside London, followed by Luton, Oldham and Birmingham. England's 3-2 win over Mexico on 7 July at 02:00 BST set records for a live broadcast at that hour.

Blackburn, Oldham, Bolton, Birmingham, Bradford, Sunderland and Wolverhampton entered the top 10 postcode areas for that match, while London's eight inner postcode areas showed lower numbers than the rest of the country. England versus Ghana drew the largest group-stage audience across the UK. France against Senegal at 20:00 BST ranked second.

Portugal versus DR Congo and Argentina versus Austria also ranked among the most watched. Matches involving smaller nations scheduled at 00:00 BST or later attracted the smallest audiences. Manchester posted the highest relative viewing for Portugal v DR Congo, Norway v Ivory Coast and Norway v Iraq.

Liverpool rose into the top 10 postcode areas for Belgium v Egypt and Netherlands matches against Tunisia and Sweden. Sunderland ranked first for Tunisia v Netherlands. Scottish households watched England matches less often than households in Wales and Northern Ireland.

Neither of Scotland's BBC matches against Haiti and Brazil ranked in the top five group-stage games among English postcodes.