Shortly before the big World Cup final, Deutsche Telekom draws a positive balance of its broadcasts on MagentaTV. According to the company, users used the platform during the FIFA World Cup more than for any other sporting event before. The exclusive live games in particular proved to be real crowd magnets.
In total, MagentaTV is showing 44 games exclusively. With a total of more than 200 million viewer contacts, the tournament reached almost three times as many as at the European Championship 2024.
Particularly successful, according to Telekom, was the quarterfinal between England and Norway, which reportedly reached around eight million viewers. This put the match on a similar level as the quarterfinal broadcasts on ARD and ZDF - even though MagentaTV is only available through a paid subscription.
In further places on Telekom's rankings follow the round of 16 match between Brazil and Norway with 6.9 million and the group stage game between France and Senegal with 6.5 million viewers.
Telekom's conclusion: The concept of delivering World Cup coverage with over 1,000 live hours with a star lineup including Thomas Müller, Mats Hummels, Tabea Kemme and Jürgen Klopp has completely paid off.
Numbers not directly comparable to TV ratings
However, the figures published by Telekom are not comparable to the traditional viewing figures of ARD and ZDF. While the public broadcasters have their reach measured by AGF Videoforschung, MagentaTV counts viewers who watched for at least one minute.
In doing so, the company converts measured households into viewer numbers using a so-called co-viewing factor. However, how realistic this factor is cannot be verified from the outside. Telekom emphasizes, however, that the figures represent actual viewer numbers and not just households.
World Cup also generates record numbers online
Telekom is not only reporting strong numbers for live broadcasts. The digital content surrounding the World Cup has also generated great attention. According to the company, World Cup content on social media generated more than two billion impressions and over 900 million video views.
In addition, there were around 30 million interactions. Telekom interprets these numbers as a sign of the high significance of World Cup content and the great engagement of fans.
The tournament also presented technical challenges for the platform: During a Germany game, MagentaTV reached 14,700 Gbit/s according to its own information, the highest data traffic measured on the platform to date.
World Cup 2030 on MagentaTV again?
After the success of the current World Cup, attention is already turning to upcoming major events. Telekom also holds the broadcasting rights to the 2027 Women's World Cup as well as the 2028 European Championship. Recently, there has also been speculation that MagentaTV might also be interested in the rights for the 2030 World Cup.
But first, the final games of the current World Cup are still to come: The third-place match between France and England on Saturday will be broadcast exclusively on MagentaTV. The final between Argentina and Spain on Sunday, however, can be seen on both MagentaTV and ZDF.
