Over half of UK employees will watch World Cup on their work computer

Posted on 19 May 2010 at 16:28

According to research by Eclipse internet, 54 per cent of Britons risk causing 'computer chaos' by watching World Cup games online during work.

It means millions will be watching streamed live coverage, but experts warn this could play havoc by slowing down or even crashing office computer systems.

The survey of 2,000 workers also found that most people had given no thought to the possible consequences on their own workplace IT networks. More than half those polled did not know whether their organisation had any restrictions or guidelines in place to stop them accessing sites to watch the tournament.

Clodagh Murphy, director of Eclipse, said: "We advise all businesses to be mindful about the impact this could have on their day-to-day business operations. Streamed content uses a lot of bandwidth and this could seriously impact the performance of their business internet connection." She also added, "We expect huge interest in that match [England vs Slovenia on June 23rd] as it is England’s only group game that happens during the working day. It will be interesting to see how it impacts networks and connectivity so at Eclipse we have made provision to ensure we have enough capacity for all our customers to be able to enjoy the matches."

Thirty seven per cent thought that watching World Cup matches wouldn't affect their work productivity and a quarter thought there would be no impact on the speed of applications if all employees watched games online at work via online streaming sites.

Author: Jim Martin

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