Survey Claims 1 in 5 UK Sports Fans Suffered Buffering and Freezing During Live Events

A new survey of 2,000 British adults, which was commissioned by broadband ISP Zen Internet (vested interest), has claimed that one in five UK sports fans have missed key moments due to buffering and freezing while watching live sport at home, while almost half (47%) have experienced some other form of internet-related problem while watching.

The survey found that, in terms of those other connectivity issues that can occur, some 14.2% have had their internet slow down because multiple devices were connected, while 12.8% have experienced delays compared with live TV or social media updates (streaming lag vs terrestrial live TV is par for the course), 12.7% have had streaming apps crash or fail to load and 11.6% have suffered poor picture quality or lag.

Suffice to say that the reliability of home broadband connectivity is “becoming a growing concern for sports fans“, particularly during live events like the FIFA World Cup 2026. Zen’s survey also found that around seven in ten respondents intend to watch at least some of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, compared to 52% who said the same ahead of the 2022 tournament.

In addition, around 13-14% will be heading to a pub or public screening to view the live action. Of those watching matches at home, almost half will rely on the internet and 14% will be checking their internet connection before kick-off.

The good news is that most modern home broadband connections should be significantly better at handling live-streaming than those that came before, particularly if you’re on a full fibre (FTTP) line. The catch is that problems can still occur within your home devices, network setup (e.g. weak Wi-Fi signals) and via the remote streaming service itself (inc. content delivery partners, routing/peering arrangements etc.), which might also suffer unexpected hiccups.

As for the issue of broadcast lag between live streams and live terrestrial TV, there are ways to reduce that delay (example), but the inherent nature of streamed content means that some lag is often inevitable when streaming.