If you have a laptop, smartphone or tablet and live in the UK then watching the World Cup live is ridiculously easy as every game will be streamed on either BBC or ITV.
Both of these stations have excellent mobile apps – on iOS, Android and Windows – that let you stream live TV, so there’s no excuse to miss a game if your telly is taken. If the main mobile apps don’t work on your device, there’s also a service called TVCatchup that streams all of the free-to-air digital channels to your smartphone and tablet.
If you want to watch a World Cup game on your laptop or PC, then all you need to do it go to the ITV, BBC or TVCatchup websites, where the games will be streamed live.
Be careful if you’re not on an all-you-can-eat data plan and want to stream the games, as live video will eat through your allowance quickly.
To find out which TV company is broadcasting the game you want to watch, take a look at the World Cup 2014 fixture list.
However, note that it’s illegal to stream “live” TV from a smartphone, tablet or laptop if you are not part of a household with a valid TV license.
How to watch the World Cup on an iPhone or iPad
Take a look at the World Cup fixture list above to work out what station the game is being shown on and download either the BBC or ITViOS app; alternatively, download the TVCatchup app and select the relevant channel through here.
How to watch the World Cup on an Android smartphone or tablet
To watch the World Cup on your Android smartphone or tablet, the main difference from iOS is that Android device fragmentation means the BBC iPlayer app might not work with your handsets. The other issue is that the ITV Player Android app doesn’t support live streaming at all.
The solution to both of these problems is the TVCatchup app as it suffers less from Android fragmentation than the BBC app, and more importantly it also lets you watch ITV live.
How to watch the World Cup on a Windows 8 smartphone or tablet
No prizes for working out what to do here: download the official BBC, ITV, or TVCatchup apps and locate the live streaming section.
How to watch the World Cup on a laptop or PC
All you need to do here is go to BBC iPlayer, ITV Player or TVCatchup websites and start streaming.
If you are having difficulties playing the content, then make sure you have the latest version of Adobe Flash Player, used to display live streams in your web browser.
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