England v Croatia: Why is the ITV online World Cup 2026 stream on a delay compared to TV?
Online viewers of the FIFA World Cup 2026 have found themselves lagging behind people watching TV by some time.
World cup viewers in the UK have noted that games being broadcast through BBC iPlayer or ITV’s website are up to two minutes behind the actual coverage.
This means online viewers often learn about goals or other major events in the game through social media first.
While it may be frustrating, this is true for all live online streaming compared to a live TV broadcast, and there is more latency in the process.
This is because online streaming content has a longer way to travel than that of live television broadcasts.
For example, a game playing on BBC iPlayer needs to come from the venue, to the broadcaster, then to the content delivery network and then to the home.
TV broadcasts, on the other hand, skip the content delivery network part of the process and so it’s inherently faster.
Content delivery networks are a system of distributed computer servers that deliver web pages and other online content to internet users.
It is something that has been noted by online viewers before, such as during the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia.
The issue has even meant that some people have missed the countdown for New Year’s day.
Recent research published by Zen Internet found one in five UK sports fans have missed key moments in live sport because of internet problems.
Their survey of 2,000 adults in the UK found that nearly half (47%) had experienced some form of internet-related issue while watching live sport.
