In my recent insight, BBC iPlayer Shows Limited Appetite for Mobile TV, I observed seasonality with mobile usage generally increasing during summer. The BBC has noted that overall usage is increased during sporting events, which tend to occur during the summer months, but the BBC iStats do not discuss whether or not that pattern is true of mobile usage.
I decided to test some alternate hypotheses, using data from the UK’s Met Office (UK’s national weather service). Below is a chart showing the % of BBC iPlayer usage which is mobile against UK average temperatures.
The results correlate very strongly, with an R2 value of 0.65. I ran a simple F-test and there is a 0.000001% probability that the correlation is down to chance. A-ha! Believe me, the sun always shines on mobile TV…