I Know Why You Had Trouble Streaming the World Cup

More than three billion people around the world tuned in to the finals of the World Cup, but this year’s competition marked a major milestone. More people than ever streamed the games live on their computers, laptops, and mobile devices. In fact, even before the semifinals began the BBC streaming platform had already seen 31 million viewers. Compared to the 32 million who tuned in via the platform for the whole of Brazil 2014, the increase is truly astonishing.

But it’s not just one or a few platforms reporting record live streaming numbers. More people than ever are relying on Internet-based live streaming video to enjoy everything from mobile live trivia games to the most anticipated sporting event of the season.

Live streaming the games hasn’t been easy for viewers or providers, however. As Mike Murphy, the deputy technology editor at Quartz tweeted during the World Cup finals over the weekend, “Internet latency ruins live sports.”

Fans watching via the BBC and ITV feeds experienced serious delays, while YouTube TV suffered a complete outage during the England-Croatia semifinal game. Some people even complained that the lag they experienced ruined the entire viewing. Their friends and colleagues watching the same game on different devices cheered and booed during exciting, crucial moments seconds before they — the viewers experiencing lag — knew what was happening.

And while providers can point to a variety of technical issues as the source of the problem, Internet live streaming has developed a reputation for being unreliable.

Live streaming on a large scale, like what happens during the live trivia game show HQ Trivia or the World Cup, is particularly difficult to navigate. While a viewer in Los Angeles might watch an event in almost perfect time, someone in Columbia watching the same exact show through the same source could experience major lag or just an overall low-quality experience. These issues can occur do to a variety of reasons outside of the live stream application itself, including the network conditions and user devices. Applications that broadcast and stream live can take measures to address these issues, however.

For small events and large spectacles alike, access to a globally distributed network of data centers is essential. While major cities and populous countries often have reliable internet connectivity through a host of providers, rural and undeveloped areas are often limited to a single provider if any at all. By placing or gaining use of servers where an audience is located, live streaming applications and providers can efficiently route data to the optimal paths, monitor them, and ensure viewers experience the same high-quality video no matter where they are.