BBC delivers 4.5m Euro 2016 alerts as audiences choose personalised Sport service

In the first major event since the BBC laid out its vision for a more personalised service in the digital era, the BBC today revealed how audiences are taking advantage of a more personalised service during the 2016 UEFA European Championships.

Published: 24 June 2016
By picking their own alerts, customising their BBC Sport website and app, getting even more involved with their own team selections and match predictions, audiences can follow the action the way they want and we’re building the technology that allows them to do that like never before.
— Chris Condron, ‎Director of Products & Services, BBC North & Nations

At the end of the group stage:

  • BBC Sport had delivered 4.5m match alerts to over half a million unique users via the BBC Sport app
  • Over 250,000 unique browsers visited My Sport, a version of the BBC Sport website and app tailored to audience preferences
  • Fans made over 5.5m match predictions in the Euro 2016 predictor on the BBC Sport website, and created over 35,000 leagues to compare predictions against friends, family and BBC pundits
  • And people chose their preferred starting XIs almost 1.8m times via a new selector tool

My Euro 2016

Through the BBC Sport mobile app, over half a million users have set data alerts for the 24 teams, receiving 4.5m match alerts on a range of topics including line-ups, kick-offs, goals, half-time scores and results.

The most followed teams are:

1. England, with 441,639 people signing up for data alerts
2. Wales (77,833)
3. Republic of Ireland (53,288)
4. Northern Ireland (48,863)
5. France (48,357)
6. Germany (44,130) 

In addition, over 400,000 users have subscribed to top stories alerts from BBC Sport since the service was launched earlier this year. During the past week, BBC Sport has further enhanced the range of topics available to include top stories alerts on cricket, football, Formula 1, golf and tennis.

Audiences can also personalise their BBC Sport website by visiting My Sport, which requires users to sign in to receive a version of the website tailored to their preferences, with 250,000 unique browsers visiting it during the first stage of the Euros. 

Match predictions

There have been over 5.5m match predictions using BBC Sport’s Euro 2016 Predictor in the group stages of the event, which lets fans use their knowledge and intuition to predict the results of all matches. Over 330,000 players have set up over 35,000 leagues to play with friends and colleagues and see where they stand in the overall pecking order, as well as compare their predictions with BBC Sport pundits, with over 20 leading pundits and commentators taking part. 

BBC pundit prediction league table (Top 5):

1st Alistair Bruce-Ball - 390 points
1st Ian Dennis - 390 points
3rd Dan Walker - 360 points
3rd Mark Lawrenson - 360 points
5th Alan Shearer - 350 points
5th Danny Mills - 350 points
5th Phil McNulty - 350 points          

My starting XI

With the Team Selector, audiences can put themselves in the shoes of Chris Coleman, Michael O’Neill and Roy Hodgson, picking their own starting XI for games involving all the home nations. Almost 1.8m selections have been made so far and audiences have shared their ideal starting XIs over 170,000 times. England fans have created their preferred line-up 1.4m times, with Dele Alli the most popular starting selection, chosen by 94 per cent of users. A combined England and Wales starting XI proved the next most popular option with 143,934 selections, as fans imagined how Bale and Ramsey could complement Rooney and Kane. Wales fans picked their preferred line ups 89,258 times and Northern Ireland 47,321 times, but a combined ‘Team of the Group Stage’ was the third most popular option with over 100,000 selections. 

Chris Condron, ‎Director of Products & Services, BBC North & Nations, says: “We’ve been improving and scaling up our live digital service ever since the London 2012 Olympics, allowing us to serve record numbers of audiences during Euro 2016 and other sporting events, which will also be available throughout the summer of sport – for Wimbledon, the Olympics and beyond.

"By picking their own alerts, customising their BBC Sport website and app, getting even more involved with their own team selections and match predictions, audiences can follow the action the way they want and we’re building the technology that allows them to do that like never before.

"Our presenters and pundits have been keen to get involved as well, and it’s been an interesting talking point in our broadcast coverage, creating some friendly rivalry between the experts.”

Last week, BBC Online attracted record-breaking digital figures for the home nations Euro 2016 clash between England and Wales with 2.3m unique browsers watching via BBC Sport and BBC iPlayer, while a peak audience of 9.3m million people (73 per cent share) tuned in on BBC One. An all-time high audience of 14.6m unique global browsers visited the BBC Sport website last Thursday to follow coverage of Euro 2016, including Northern Ireland’s match against Ukraine. This broke the previous record of 13.6m browsers set on the final day of the 2015-16 Premier League season In addition, a record 4.4m unique browsers accessed the BBC Sport App last week.

SB

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