In soccer-crazy Brazil, streaming upstart pulls World Cup viewers from TV to YouTube

BRASILIA, July 5 : For decades, watching the World Cup in soccer-obsessed Brazil usually meant turning on the TV, but this year, for the first time, only half the games are being broadcast the usual way.

YouTube-based CazeTV, founded by streamer Casimiro Miguel, is the only platform showing all 104 matches for free, turning Latin America's largest media market into a closely watched laboratory for live sports in the streaming era.

As Brazil face Norway for a spot in the quarter-finals on Sunday, long-dominant Globo, the largest TV network in Latin America, remains the country's biggest World Cup broadcaster – reaching 86 per cent of the tournament's audience so far.

But early ratings suggest the audience has fragmented as viewers split among CazeTV and other outlets. 

The streaming shift has given younger fans more ways to watch, while making some games easier to miss for casual viewers accustomed to finding the World Cup on free-to-air TV.

CazeTV says it peaked at 21.3 million simultaneous connected devices, when Brazil beat Japan 2-1, which would make it one of the most-watched live streams on YouTube ever.

Its owner, LiveMode, has taken the concept to Portugal, where LiveModeTV, a YouTube channel with star player Cristiano Ronaldo as a major stakeholder, is broadcasting 34 World Cup games for free. In its first weeks, LiveMode says the channel reached nearly 90 per cent of Portuguese households.

FERTILE GROUND

Brazil's sports culture, high digital engagement and influential content creators fashioned the right conditions for CazeTV's model to flourish, said LiveMode co-founder Sergio Lopes.

"Every major sports organisation is asking how to connect with audiences whose media habits have changed significantly," he said. "Brazil