THE BBC are currently beating Gary Lineker at the World Cup after announcing higher streams for their podcast.

Former presenter Lineker made his way out to America to host his The Rest is Football show live on Netflix whilst Beeb employees were left mainly at home.

He quit the company after 26 years following controversy over social media posts – and has since gone on to boom with his podcasting pals.

But the BBC‘s Football Daily is winning the fight for viewers so far – outgunning Lineker during the opening 10 days.

Figures released show a peak of nearly 250,000 daily streams for the BBC with “episodes regularly bringing in more than 100,000 viewers on iPlayer alone.”

And Lineker, whose popular pod was picked up for £14million by online giants Netflix, is getting around 100-140k per day.

But the Beeb have impressed despite debate around their Salford studio compared to Lineker’s swanky US pad and ITV‘s Brooklyn base.

They have over 11million streams of tournament highlights so far – double the number from Euro 2024.

And the BBC say that 3million went to the dedicated sports app on Wednesday, June 17 – the day England beat Croatia in their opener.

That was the most for nearly two years – since the Wimbledon and Euro 2024 finals were on the same day.

Over 235million social media views have been raked in as well – and BBC director of sport, Alex Kay-Jelski – who has fielded plenty of criticism for keeping some big-name TV personalities in the UK until the knockout rounds, is revelling.

He said: “On top of the millions flocking to live games — even in the middle of the night — it’s fantastic to see the appetite for our on-demand World Cup coverage has sky-rocketed.

“Whether it’s our no-spoiler highlights, the visualised Football Daily podcast or our new shorts video tab, live pages and written stories, we are meeting audiences where they are, when they want.

“We’re delighted to see the influx of young audiences using our 3D tool and games alongside the loyal BBC Sport obsessives who are devouring cricket, tennis and more alongside the football.”

Despite Beeb success, ITV have four of the top five highest audiences so far – including England’s 4-2 win over Croatia.

But BBC have more first picks after the group stage – and Lineker is there to sweep up the rest with his free-swearing streamer.

He made a surprise appearance on ITV over the weekend during Germany‘s win over Ivory Coast.

Lineker opened the show ahead of Laura Woods, saying: “Thank you very much for joining us on ITV for this one. Another day, another game, another channel…”

Woods cut in quickly: “Woah, woah, woah – Gary! That’s my job!”

Lineker quipped: “Sorry, old habits!”

SOURCE: THESUN