Statistical Significance.

Three million people in the UK watched 2006 World Cup matches by live Internet/video streaming. An interesting headline but what does it actually mean?

I suspected it might refer to three million separate streaming views within the UK but, having contacted the source of the quoted figure, I discover that this is the extrapolated result from a single question in an omnibus survey. So while it's not a direct measurement, it is statistically valid and a significant number.

However, there is no minimum time qualification here. Someone who caught thirty seconds online of one game is equivalent to the sad person who watched every game that way. Given that sixteen million viewers sat through the entire three hours of a single game (England's quarter final defeat to Portugal) and twenty million watched the penalty shootout phase of a final that didn't involve England, it is sensible to conclude that while viewing habits are changing, they're not changing out of all recognition.