World Cup 2018 fixtures and TV schedule: 9 ways to watch, listen and stream the World Cup – even at work

Evan Gower June 5, 2018

The World Cup 2018 is here and, it’s certainly looking like, the England team might well bring it home for the first time in 52 years. Everyone expected England to falter in the last 16, some were more optimistic and listed them as going out at the quarter-finals, but the team has made it further than any other England squad has done for the last 28 years.

So, with only four matches of the beautiful game left, you’re probably wondering just how you can actually watch them live – especially without a TV to hand or if you’re going to be trapped in work.

Thankfully, World Cup fixtures for the final four matches are actually at reasonable times so most people won’t be trapped in work. However, if you are stuck in the office or workplace, we’ve put together a list of eight ways you can watch the World Cup 2018 fixtures in the UK.

How to watch World Cup 2018 – even if you’re at work

England World Cup 2018 games

After having surprised everyone by beating back Sweden in the quarter-finals, England is through to the semi-finals where they’ll go up against Croatia. If they manage to beat back the tricky Croatian team, they’ll be up against either France or Belgium – two rather impressive teams for 2018. Seeing as Belgium have already beaten England once before in the group stages, going up against them in the final would be nothing short of nerve-wracking.

Thankfully, thanks to match times, you won’t really have to worry about watching during work hours as all matches will be taking place from 5pm – with the final happening on Sunday at 4pm.

World Cup 2018 fixtures

Scroll down to the bottom of this article to view the remaining 2018 World Cup fixtures schedule.

Where to watch, listen and stream the World Cup 2018 schedule in the UK

World Cup 2018 on BBC iPlayer and ITV Hub

The BBC and ITV have exclusive rights to the TV schedule for the World Cup 2018 in the UK, so if you’re trying to watch the World Cup 2018 at your desk, your best bet is to stream the coverage live from their respective platforms.

You can stream games on the BBC using BBC iPlayer, while matches on ITV will be available to stream using ITV Hub, including the apps. BBC has additionally promised to show World Cup 2018 fixtures in 4K.

According to report by Fonehouse, who crunched the numbers using data averages needed to stream content on BBC iPlayer and ITV Hub, you’re going to need at least 28.8GB of mobile data to stream every single World Cup 2018 game.

Talking of data crunching predictions, Opta gave Brazil the highest chance of winning the World Cup 2018 (13.2%), followed by Germany (10.7%) Argentina (10.1%) and France (9.9%). Seeing as the first three tipped to win have been kicked out, and England was only given a 2.1% chance of victory, I’d say that’s rather useless data… You can learn more about these World Cup 2018 predictions here, and laugh at how inaccurate it all has been.

World Cup 2018 on radio

In times like these – when you’re chained to your desk – going old-school is sometimes the way to go. With radio coverage, you’ll be able to plug your headphones in and listen to the match live.

BBC Radio 5 Live and 5 Live Sports Extra will be providing continuous live commentary of all of the World Cup 2018 fixtures during the month-long tournament. Mark Chapman and Kelly Cates will be leading the coverage on BBC 5 Live. There’s also going to be tons of podcast coverage, too, including one from BBC 5 Live as well as OptaJoe.

You can make your audio experience even better by picking up a pair of headphones from our list of the best headphones. Nothing lost – except that gorgeous 4K the BBC is promising.

World Cup 2018 on the FIFA app or BBC Sports app

If you think you’ll be too distracted by the World Cup 2018 playing in the background, follow along using either the official FIFA iOS or Android app, or the BBC Sports app? By enabling notifications, you can make sure you’re staying up-to-date with every goal and every red card.

The 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia app lets you choose which notifications you receive, from being alerted to all goals to being sent alerts about which teams have won games, or you can just be sent notifications for your favourite team. The app additionally comes with the official match schedule of all 64 games. Once the tournament starts, you’ll additionally be able to see minute-by-minute action of every match and get real-time live coverage via a live blog. This includes real-time live stats.

There will also be Video Highlights and match summaries for all 64 matches available “just a few minutes after each game.”

World Cup 2018 on BBC VR

The BBC is – for the first time – offering live coverage of 29 of the World Cup 2018 fixtures in immersive virtual reality, and you won’t want to miss it. Yes, even if you’re at work.

OK, you’re not going to look very inconspicuous with a VR headset strapped to your head, but England’s match against Panama lines up so neatly with 1PM lunchtime that it would be a shame not to try it out.

The BBC will stream all its available matches in VR through an app called BBC Sport VR-Fifa World Cup, which is out for free now. It is available on iOS, Android, Gear VR, Oculus Go and PlayStation VR devices. In VR, you’ll be able to watch from behind the goals, get live stats and watch highlights on a massive virtual screen.

You can grab the BBC Sport VR app on the iOS App Store and the Google Play Store now.

World Cup 2018 on Amazon Fire TV Stick

Despite Amazon recently picking up the rights to a number of Premier League games in the 2018/19 season, it hasn’t paid for the rights for any World Cup games. Instead, you’ll technically be streaming the matches via the BBC iPlayer and ITV Hub but via your HD TV and an Amazon Fire TV Stick.

All the live matches will be available from the Fire TV stick’s home screen and you’ll need to download the BBC iPlayer and ITV Hub apps first. The dedicated Amazon Football hub will also have discussion highlights and other related programming.

The following fixtures will be available on Fire TV:

Date	Fixture	Time (BST)	Channel
10 July	France vs Belgium	19:00	ITV
11 July	England vs Croatia	19:00	BBC
14 July	3rd place match	15:00	ITV
15 July	Final	16:00	BBC/ITV

As well as live matches and highlights, available via the Alexa Voice Remote, the World Cup 2018 Alexa Skill (scroll down for more details) can give you the latest news from Russia including match reports, player stats, and tournament scores.

World Cup 2018 on Twitter

Failing the above, why not follow along with the Twitter commentariat? You can have a consistently updating stream of tweets by using the #WorldCup2018 hashtag or following the @FIFAcom account. If you just pop in every so often, you’ll be kept up-to-date with all the action.

World Cup 2018 on Apple TV and Siri

iphone-x_siri-world-cup-screen-06122018_big

Ahead of the World Cup 2018, Siri added support for football in Brazil, Russia, Denmark, Finland, Malaysia, Turkey, Thailand, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Israel, which is in addition to 26 other countries that already support Siri sports. This lets you ask Siri for scores, schedules, standings and team rosters. You can also watch World Cup 2018 games via the Sports feature on the Apple TV App, but only if you’re in the US and Canada.

World Cup 2018 on TV

There’s no point being discreet about it, the World Cup 2018 is happening. Let’s all just accept it, flaunt our love for the nation’s favourite sport and get the boss to screen the whole thing in the office.

Sure, your productivity is bound to go down, and you’re no doubt going to hear a sweepstake-backed cheer every now and again, but seeing as meetings make you less productive anyway, how much worse could putting the World Cup 2018 on in the background be? The BBC is broadcasting the whole thing in glorious 4K with HDR on supported TV sets via BBC iPlayer.

READ NEXT: What is 4K?

The BBC’s 4K content will only be available to the first “tens of thousands” of people, so if you are planning on watching it in your office. Make sure you’re one of the first to put the match on when it starts, there’s a full list of compatible TVs here. Dearest managers, if you can’t beat them – join them.

World Cup 2018 with Alexa

Starting on 13 June, you’ll be able to ask your Amazon Echo for daily World Cup round-ups to make sure you’re kept up to date. From updates on the current score and previous results right up to the World Cup schedule and random football-related trivia questions, Amazon’s turned Alexa into a World Cup commentator.

READ NEXT: The best Alexa skills

You can ask Alexa things like: “How do I bluff my way through the World Cup?” or “When do England play next?”, “When did France last win the World Cup?” or just “What’s the latest with the World Cup?”

It’s a nice alternative if you don’t have the time to follow along with all the matches on TV. Let’s just hope Alexa channels this: