NEW YORK—Nielsen’s newest edition of the Ad Supported Gauge shows that the total share of ad-supported TV is holding steady in Q1 2026, representing nearly 73% of overall TV viewing while streaming captured a record share of ad-supported TV viewing.

In the quarter, streaming captured a record-high 46.6% share of ad-supported TV, driven by seasonal events including NBCU’s Super Bowl simulcast, Olympics coverage on Peacock, Amazon’s NFL playoff games, and additional episodes of blockbuster series like Stranger Things on Netflix, Landman on Paramount+, and The Pitt on HBO Max.

Overall, sports continue to be a driving force behind the consistently high share of ad supported TV. The fourth quarter, with its blockbuster sports schedule, retained the high water mark for share of ad supported TV, but there is less than a 1.8 share point difference between the highest and lowest quarter.

Coming off a five-quarter high in Q4, broadcast captured a 28.2% share of ad-supported TV viewing in Q1, down 1.4 share points from last quarter and down 0.5 points year-over-year.

Cable rebounded to a 25.2% share (up 0.4 points from Q4), driven by the February 2026 Olympics and its traditional March Madness ratings surge.

In releasing the data, Nielsen noted that the published version of The Ad Supported Gauge has not migrated to the ARF DASH-based media related universe estimates which is planned for the fall. This is significant because this approach, while consistent with previous months of the Gauge, will have different results than production data.

CHICAGO—Wireless technology from Shure once again played a critical role at the Super Bowl with its newest innovations with the company’s SM39 headset microphone contributing to the overall success of the production.

In totality, Shure solutions delivered reliable, high-quality audio across every facet of the broadcast, live entertainment and fan experience.

For Super Bowl LX, ATK Audiotek and Professional Wireless Systems (PWS) continued their partnership supporting the NFL’s largest event. It supplied all wireless microphones and in-ear monitoring systems for stadium entertainment, the Apple Music Halftime Show, referees and additional live productions throughout the week leading up to the game.

Throughout the event, the production team relied on Shure Axient digital wireless microphone systems, PSM 1000 advanced in-ear personal monitoring systems, Shure TwinPlex lavaliers and SM39 headset microphones to meet the demands of an extremely dense RF environment.

The wireless infrastructure included AD4Q receivers configured in Quadversity with additional Axient digital receivers supporting entertainment, broadcast and referee communications. Shure Wireless Workbench and Wavetool software tools were used for real-time RF and audio monitoring, ensuring performance integrity throughout the game.

One of the most technically demanding moments of Super Bowl LX came during the Apple Music Halftime Show during which Bad Bunny (Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio) opted for a Shure headset microphone rather than a traditional handheld.

“When I found out that Bad Bunny wanted to use a headset on the Halftime Show at Super Bowl LX this February, I was pretty apprehensive,” said Tom Holmes, broadcast audio mixer for Super Bowl LX. “For a big show in such a large stadium, and literally tons of speakers on the field, a handheld mic is usually what I want to hear.”

Despite this apprehension, Bad Bunny performed using a Shure SM39 headset microphone paired with an Axient digital ADX1 bodypack transmitter, delivering full vocal power while maintaining hands-free freedom of movement throughout the performance.

“Much to my surprise, this mic was the perfect choice,” said Holmes. “It handled his quite-loud singing voice, no problem. It kept leakage from the field PA to a negligible amount, had little to no popping and delivered really nice sound quality for being in such close proximity to the mouth. This is now my go-to large diaphragm headset mic—tailor-made for hands-free singers in large or small venues. It performs like a champ and stays stable enough to handle anything from climbing telephone poles to diving into a crowd of dancers. Well done, Shure.”

“The SM39 is my go-to headset mic for vocalists,” said Alex Guessard, front of house (FOH) mixer. “It delivers excellent tone, rock-solid mechanical stability and outstanding rejection.”

“We’ve been really happy with the Shure SM39 headset microphone on this tour run. It’s been dependable, comfortable for the artist and delivers a clear and present sound each night,” said Jose Angel Rivera Jr., FOH engineer for Bad Bunny.

All halftime performers relied on Shure PSM 1000 advanced in-ear personal monitoring systems, ensuring clear, consistent mixes in one of the most challenging live audio environments in the world.

Super Bowl LX featured a wide range of artist-specific wireless configurations, including Charlie Puth, who relied on an Axient digital ADX2FD frequency diversity handheld transmitter, with receivers configured in Quadversity. Both Puth and Coco Jones, who performed a stunning rendition of “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” were equipped with Shure PSM 1000 in-ear monitoring systems.

Beyond the halftime show, Van Wagner Sports & Entertainment deployed 16 channels of Axient digital wireless, supported by Shure ANX4 receivers for on-field entertainment and broadcast production.

"Using the ANX4 was a wonderful experience; having access to a wide-band tuning range meant there was never a concern. We could bring one piece of equipment and slot ourselves into the most ideal spot frequency-wise without having to make sacrifices due to device limitations,” said RF technician Matthew Bell. “The flexibility to route every channel to two different Dante outputs internal to the ANX4 meant building out redundant and talkback routes was easier than ever. Finally, the ability to selectively enable Quadversity per-channel is a huge asset in being able to stay flexible and respond to challenges as they arise without impacting the rest of the RF signal chain."

Referees relied upon Axient digital ADX1 bodypack transmitters paired with TwinPlex TL47 lavalier microphones, ensuring intelligible, consistent communication throughout the game. The ADX1 bodypacks leveraged frequency diversity to help maintain uninterrupted audio. Dual TL47 microphones were deployed per referee for redundancy.

Shure wireless also powered the Whatnot livestream, using 16 channels of Axient digital to support live fan engagement during Super Bowl week.

More information is available on the company’s website.

This is not a column about a girl from Barcelona or any body part en fuego. Nor is it a column about political, social or cultural battles—at least not directly. 

Rather, it’s about two technology-business-related lessons broadcasters should take away from Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show vs. Turning Point USA’s “All-American Halftime Show.” 

The first deals with the erosion of the gatekeeper function of broadcasters. The end of the broadcast monolith is nothing new. Then Tele-Communications Inc. CEO John Malone first postulated a “500-channel cable TV universe” in the early 1990s. 

Fast forward several decades, and the arrival of internet streaming, YouTube, over-the-top SVOD and AVOD channels has exponentially grown that number. (YouTube alone accounts for about 60 million regularly updated channels out of a total 115 million channels worldwide.)

What is new is that TPUSA’s alternative programming, designed to compete head-to-head with the NFL’s halftime show, blended streaming and traditional linear television distribution to attract huge numbers and offer counter-messaging. (That’s all; I promise. I’m only brushing on the political/social/cultural component.)

According to YouTube, between 5 million and 6.1 million watched the “All-American Halftime Show” live, most of whom likely tuned away from the Super Bowl halftime show to watch, and within a few days attracted 19 million to 21 million more viewers. 

On the linear side, Sinclair added a special hour to its “The National News Desk” on its CHARGE diginet, which aired TPUSA’s show. It proved to be the highest telecast ever on CHARGE—up 756% compared to the same time period in 2025 and 263% higher than 2026’s time period average. 

Total viewers nearly hit 1 million. CHARGE was also the No. 1 multicast network among  P18-49,  P25-54 and P35-64 (Nielsen’s designation for 18-to-49, 25-to-54 and 35-to-64 year-olds, respectively) during the show.

(By the way, hat tip to Animal Planet’s “Puppy Bowl,” which drew 15.3 million viewers this year across multiple linear channels and the Discovery+ streaming service. But that competes with the Super Bowl pregame, so it’s a bit of a different story.)

The point is clear and simple. Local broadcasters, in certain circumstances, have an opportunity to offer programming that peels away a substantial number of viewers from competitors airing enormously popular events. Given access to both their linear digital subchannels and streaming, it’s reasonable to think large station groups could build a substantial national audience attractive to advertisers with such programming. There could even be room for station groups to work together to maximize distribution and share production costs. 

Or as a complement to the main program, local broadcasters could offer local spins of that show, simultaneously, as a streaming channel. 

NEW YORK—Nielsen has released revised Super Bowl LX viewership data, with the total rising to 125.6 million viewers across NBC, Peacock, Telemundo, NBC Sports Digital and NFL+ on Sunday, February 8, according to Big Data + Panel measurement.

Nielsen said that the update was due to the fact that an unnamed "big data provider" did not properly collect data from its devices on February 8, which impacted the Big Data + Panel count.

The telecast on NBC, Peacock, Telemundo, NBC Sports Digital and NFL+ drew a combined average household rating of 39.7.

Nielsen initially reported 124.9 million average viewers. It did not report updates to the peak viewing numbers it initially released.

Updated data was provided after initial ratings were made public on February 10. Additional ratings updates from February 8 are also now available to Nielsen clients.

In 2023, Nielsen also updated its viewing figures for the Super Bowl. Fox revised viewing figures from 113 million to 115.1 million total viewers across Fox, Fox Deportes and streaming after it discovered that Nielsen had made encoding errors.

STAMFORD, Conn.—NBC Sports said its Super Bowl coverage Feb. 8 set an all-time media record for peak viewing, with 137.8 million watching in the second quarter as the Seattle Seahawks led the New England Patriots 6-0.

The Seahawks’ 29-13 victory over the Patriots averaged 124.9 million viewers on NBC, Peacock, Telemundo, NBC Sports Digital, and NFL+, based on the official live-plus-same-day Nielsen Big Data + Panel data. It ranked as the second-most watched show in U.S. history, behind last February’s Super Bowl on Fox.

This year’s Super Bowl was also the most-watched show in the history of NBCUniversal, which celebrates 100 years of NBC in 2026.

“The Super Bowl and the NFL once again delivered a blockbuster audience across the NBC broadcast network, Peacock, and Telemundo, and provided an unprecedented lead-in to our Primetime in Milan coverage,” NBC Sports President Rick Cordella saids. “The Super Bowl and the Olympics are the two most powerful events in the world, and we salute our talented production, tech, and announce teams who delivered best-in-class presentations for our viewers, stations and partners.”

In addition, Telemundo delivered the most-watched Super Bowl in the history of U.S. Spanish-language television, averaging 3.3 million viewers. Telemundo’s audience peaked during the halftime show, with an average of 4.8 million viewers—the most-watched Super Bowl halftime in Spanish-language TV history.

The halftime show also set a number of records.

Total social consumption (inclusive of fans, owned platforms, broadcast partners, influencers, etc.) of the Apple Music Super Bowl LX Halftime Show starring Bad Bunny set a record of 4 billion views after the first 24 hours, up 137% year over year, per Ripple Analytics.

Over 55% of all NFL social views of the halftime show came from international markets.

The three most-viewed NFL social posts in history are now Apple Music Super Bowl LX Halftime Show clips. In total, these clips have been viewed for more than 115 years on social media platforms:

• “Only Thing More Powerful Than Hate is Love”—@NFL on Instagram had 179 million views, most viewed clip on NFL Social ever with more than half (54%) of views coming from outside the U.S.
• Bad Bunny Listing Countries Before Spiking Football—@NFL on Instagram had 168 million, the second most-watched clip on NFL social ever with 68% of views coming from outside the U.S.
• Bad Bunny Listing Countries Before Spiking Football—@NFL on TikTok had 100 million views; people have spent a combined 53-plus years watching this clip already; 60% of the viewership is female, 62% comes from outside the United States; 91% of viewers under 35; 36% under 25.

In addition, the Apple Music Super Bowl LX Halftime Show averaged 128.2 million viewers from 8:15-8:30 p.m. ET in the U.S. Full global viewership for the halftime show will be available early next week.

Apple also reported that immediately following the Apple Music Super Bowl LX Halftime Show, Bad Bunny listens on Apple Music were up 7 times. “DtMF,” “BAILE INoLVIDABLE,” and “Tití Me Preguntó” were the most-streamed songs immediately after the show. Other Apple Music notables from the Halftime Show include:

In the hours following his performance, Bad Bunny’s Apple Music Super Bowl LX Halftime Show Set List playlist became the most-played Set List on Apple Music.

• The day after Super Bowl LX, Bad Bunny’s DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS landed on the album charts in 155 countries, reaching the Top 10 in 128 countries and claiming the #1 spot in 46 countries, including Mexico, Colombia, Chile, Brazil, Germany, France and Spain.
• Following his appearance in the Apple Music Super Bowl LX Halftime Show, Bad Bunny also occupied nearly a quarter of the Daily Top 100 Global chart, with 24 songs in the Top 100, 9 songs in the Top 25, and 6 songs in the Top 10, including “DtMF,” which was the #1 song.
• 6 of the 24 songs re-entered the Daily Top 100 Global chart for the first time since at least February 2025, and his single with Cardi B, “I Like It,” re-entered the chart for the first time since January 2020.

The popularity of the Super Bowl also helped NBC’s coverage of the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics. Following the Vince Lombardi Trophy presentation on the field at Levi’s Stadium, Super Bowl play-by-play voice Mike Tirico hosted “Primetime in Milan,” which featured Lindsey Vonn’s downhill run, and gold-medal-winning performances by Breezy Johnson in the downhill and Team USA in the team figure skating event at the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics.

Sunday’s “Primetime in Milan” and “Milan Prime” presentations averaged 42 million viewers, marking NBCUniversal’s largest Winter Games audience since Day 2 of the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics (a span of 53 event days) and an increase of 73% over the corresponding 2022 Beijing Olympics show (24.3 million), which also followed the Super Bowl.

In addition, Sunday was Peacock’s best day ever in terms of both reach and hours streamed, and featured the post-Super Bowl debut of “The Burbs,” which was the highest day-one Peacock original debut ever.

More detailed viewership metrics will be available from Nielsen later this week.

STAMFORD, Conn.—As of Weds. Feb. 11, NBCUniversal is reporting that its coverage of the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics has averaged 25.7 million viewers, more than double the average audiences (12.6 million) who watched the Beijing Olympics in a similar period.

As of Feb. 11 NBCU also reported that more than 200 million Americans (200.1 million) have watched NBCUniversal’s presentation of what it is calling “Legendary February”, headlined by Super Bowl LX, the Winter Olympics, and the debut of Sunday Night Basketball on February 1, according to Nielsen Big Data + Panel reach data.

“This level of audience accumulation over just an 11-day period is exceptional in today’s media environment,” said Rick Cordella, president, NBC Sports. “We look forward to continued momentum, with Team USA in contention for many medals in upcoming Olympic competition, and the return of NBA All-Star Weekend to NBC for the first time in more than two decades.”

More specifically, NBCU reported these viewing figures:

• Through Wednesday, the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics is averaging 25.7 million viewers on NBC, Peacock, NBCUniversal Digital Platforms and Versant’s CNBC and USA Network – marking the most-watched Winter Games presentation at this point since 2014 Sochi Olympics, according to official Nielsen Big Data + Panel viewership and preliminary data from Nielsen, and digital data from Adobe Analytics.
• NBCUniversal’s Milan Cortina Olympics viewership – headlined by live coverage in the afternoon (Milan Prime: 2-5 p.m. ET) followed by Primetime in Milan (8-11 p.m. ET/PT) – is double the Beijing Olympics at this point (12.8 million average).
• Led by the NBC broadcast network, all six days of Milan Cortina Winter Olympic coverage (since last Friday’s Opening Ceremony) have topped 20 million viewers – with Wednesday’s show averaging 21.5 million viewers – and have posted significant gains over 2022.
• Led by Peacock, 6.3 billion minutes of Milan Cortina Olympics content have been streamed, topping the last two Winter Games combined (6.1 billion minutes for Beijing and PyeongChang).

The numbers are particularly good news for the company, which owns the U.S. media rights to the Olympic Games through 2036 including Milan Cortina (2026), Los Angeles (2028), French Alps (2030), Brisbane (2032), Utah (2034), and the 2036 Summer Games.

MELVILLE, N.Y.—NBC Sports relied upon Canon for the vast majority of broadcast lenses used for the production of Super Bowl LX between the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks, Feb. 8, from Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif

As it has for the past 30 years, Canon Professional Services (CPS) also provided on-the-ground support at the Super Bowl.

"We are thrilled that Canon’s gear and expert support could contribute to the success of the image capture of the Big Game," said Kiyoshi Oka, executive vice president and general manager for Canon. "It is a distinct honor to empower the creators who preserve these historic cultural milestones. At Canon, we are incredibly proud to play a part in the joy and inspiration that this event delivers to fans everywhere."

Canon supplied more than 98% of the lenses used by NBC Sports during the game. They included 47 broadcast lenses for all of their pre- and post-game studio activations throughout the Santa Clara metro area as well as 11 lenses throughout the concourse and on-field studio sets where the CINE-SERVO 11-55mm T2.95-3.95 lens, which features an ultra-wide angle of 100 degrees, took center stage.

Canon also had a strong presence for many of the credentialed photographers at the event thanks to the Canon Professional Services (CPS) team. The CPS team brought in over 200 pieces of Canon gear, including camera bodies and lenses for photo agencies, freelancers and other credentialed Canon photographers.

"Testing Canon’s new glass at the Big Game was the perfect opportunity to see how the RF7-14mm F2.8-3.5 L Fisheye STM and RF14mm F1.4 L VCM prime lens could handle the massive scale of the stadium,” said Terrell Lloyd, Canon Explorer of Light and San Francisco 49ers director of photography.

“My goal was to capture wide, high-intensity shots from a top-down perspective, and the synergy between these lenses and the EOS R1 camera delivered exactly that. The sharpness and dynamic range allowed me to bring my home stadium into the global spotlight with more clarity than ever, once again pushing the boundaries of what I can create in a fast-paced, in-game environment."

More information is available on the company’s website.

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif.—As the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots faced off Feb. 8, Sennheiser wireless solutions played a pivotal role in delivering pristine live audio throughout the Super Bowl LX broadcast.

Brandi Carlile’s rendition of “America the Beautiful” during the pre-game show marked the debut of a prototype Spectera SKM handheld, while the Apple Music Halftime Show brought memorable guest performances on the proven Sennheiser Digital 6000 wireless system by Lady Gaga and Ricky Martin.

Spectera is a wideband, bidirectional digital wireless ecosystem that enables simultaneous audio transmission, system control and monitoring within a single RF channel. It allows up to 64 channels (32 in/32 out) of simultaneous audio transmission, monitoring and control within a single rack unit, significantly reducing RF complexity and improving stability.

Carlile’s performance featured a custom gold Spectera SKM handheld prototype and Neumann KK 205 microphone capsule, operating at 1 millisecond (ms) latency with 96 kHz audio resolution. The Spectera system’s ultra-low latency and high-definition signal path ensured exceptional vocal clarity and immediacy across the stadium and broadcast feed.

The star-studded halftime show, led by Bad Bunny, featured guest performances by Lady Gaga and Ricky Martin, each using custom-finished Sennheiser Digital 6000 handheld transmitters—white for Gaga and silver for Martin. Their wireless microphones delivered consistency, transparency and reliability.

Across the event, seven Sennheiser wireless microphones and nine stereo in-ear systems operated using just 6 MHz of RF spectrum, highlighting the spectral efficiency of the Spectera and Digital 6000 solutions in one of live audio’s most congested RF environments.

“The clarity and stability were what stood out right away,” said Jerry Streeter, monitor engineer for Carlile. “There is no audible compression, the top end stays smooth on wedges, and the in-ears sound incredibly open. From an RF perspective, getting all that performance on a single TV channel is a game changer.”

The path to the Spectera handheld transmitter’s Super Bowl LX debut began last year, when RF engineer Cameron Stuckey collaborated with Sennheiser on the ambitious New York theater production “Masquerade,” where early Spectera in-ear monitoring systems demonstrated reliable, high-channel-count wireless performance in an exceptionally challenging RF environment. When Stuckey was later named lead RF coordinator for Super Bowl LX, that experience sparked discussions about whether Spectera could meet the technical demands of the event.

“That project [“Masquerade,”] required high-density, bidirectional wireless in a complex structure environment, utilizing every feature of Spectera – device capacity, multi-zone operation, modulation diversity,” said Stuckey. “It was the best demonstration of the system’s stability. Knowing the Sennheiser team was as committed to perfection as I was meant it was ready for any production.”

A key factor in bringing the Spectera handheld to the Super Bowl was the support of Sean Quackenbush, Carlile’s longtime front of house engineer, and her monitor engineer, Jerry Streeter, who have relied on Sennheiser and Neumann vocal solutions for years.

In preparation for the pre-game show, Quackenbush evaluated the Spectera handheld transmitter prototype alongside his preferred Neumann KK 205 capsule and recognized the system’s sonic advantages.

“As a front-of-house engineer, the biggest thing for me is when I don’t have to work on a vocal mic to make it sound right,” said Quackenbush. “With Spectera, what I heard right away was how musical it was. The proximity effect felt natural, not exaggerated, and for the first time with a wireless handheld you’re really hearing the Neumann capsule itself. It has that German studio quality you expect in a controlled environment, but we were hearing it live, wirelessly, in a stadium. Once we heard that immediacy and clarity, it was hard to imagine going back.”

In the weeks leading up to the Super Bowl, Stuckey and Quackenbush worked closely with Sennheiser to prepare a custom prototype Spectera handheld transmitter for the broadcast.

To ensure seamless coverage through rehearsals and the live broadcast, the production team deployed three Sennheiser DAD antennas covering the stadium bowl, with an additional DAD antenna supporting backstage and preparation areas.

“Spectera allows us to deploy antenna systems in a fraction of the time that coax-based narrowband systems require to get right,” said Stuckey. “Instead of compensating for lossy links or RF-Over-Fiber conversion artifacts, we define the coverage area, place the DAD antennas and plug it in. Spectrum selection is the challenge of large events like Super Bowl. Having such a wide tuning range and access to 1G4 spectrum means that Spectera can be used on any show, regardless of size. You’ll see it on TV again soon.”

When it comes to low latency and the fastest possible access to live action, over-the-air broadcasters were a clear winner of Super Bowl LX. A new study of various feeds for the big game found that over-the-air broadcasts delivered the action on the field to viewers with only 19 seconds of latency. That is much faster than the 48 to 62 seconds of latency for major streamers, researchers from Stats Platform found.

Cable TV offered the next best low latency at 38 seconds (double the latency of broadcast feeds), followed by Peacock streams (48 seconds), YouTube TV and Hulu (tied at 53 seconds), DirecTV Stream (60 seconds) and NFL+ (62 seconds).

To make the measurements, Stats Perform conducted a comprehensive latency study across leading streaming providers during Super Bowl LIX, that involved building a measurement system using a globally synchronized clock (accurate within half a second) with in-stadium staff to measure when key events occur, such as kickoffs and quarter starts. Remote staff and volunteers then took measurements when these key events happen on their screens across various services and devices. By combining these measurements, they quantified both the average latency behind on-field action and the ranges of lag for viewers on the same platform, known as drift.

Stats Platform also surveyed 1,000 NFL fans aged 18-64 across the U.S. to explore how streaming delays influence viewing habits, expectations, and platform choice. That survey found that feal-time viewing is the minimum expectation of NFL fans, with nearly all NFL fans (93%) say it’s important to watch live games as close to real time as possible, with 45% rating it very or extremely important.

“Ultra-low latency has become a defining factor in how fans expect to consume live sports. This research connects our direct Super Bowl latency measurements with first-party fan data to quantify how delays impact viewing experience, frustration, and engagement, and what that means for streaming providers looking to retain fans on their platforms,” according to Umair Ikram, UX Researcher, Stats Perform.

More information and data is available here.

SAN FRANCISCO—In addition to the massive amount of production and broadcast technologies being deployed this week for Super Bowl LX, with Sony supplying over 175 cameras, and NBC Sports reporting that it laid down more than 75 miles of cable, the host venue Levi Stadium got a major wireless upgrade to handle the needs of both fans and media covering the game according to the Wireless Infrastructure Association.

In an article for its website, the group noted that “for wireless professionals, the Super Bowl is more than a sporting spectacle — it’s a massive stress test, demonstrating how cellular networks, distributed antenna systems, small cells, Wi‑Fi, spectrum layering and cybersecurity converge to create a seamless digital experience. From stadium concourses to city streets and transit hubs, this month’s sporting events highlight just how crucial high-performance wireless networks have become.”

Costa Kladianos, the 49ers’ executive vice president of technology, described the upgrade to WIA as a “complete rebuild.”

Working with JMA Wireless, “Levi’s installed a digital DAS capable of 5G, multi-band LTE, and future spectrum layers, delivering what Kladianos calls `70,000 VIP experiences” for every fan walking through the doors. Redundant fiber and power paths ensure high availability, while energy-efficient designs reduce the stadium’s carbon footprint. The result is a long-term foundation built to handle extreme device density, high-speed uploads, and ultra-reliable connectivity for years to come,” wrote the author of WIA article Kristen Beckman.

In addition, AT&T “refreshed the DAS inside Levi’s Stadium and expanded macro and small cell sites around stadium-adjacent fan zones” and Verizon, “layered C-Band and mmWave deployments for high throughput and capacity. Together, these carriers deployed nearly 200 projects spanning DAS, small cells, and backhaul, with on-site RF engineers and real-time command center monitoring fine-tuning the network for peak efficiency. Small cells targeted high-traffic ingress and egress points, while private slices ensured operational communications remained uninterrupted. The combined system sustains tens of thousands of simultaneous connections with minimal latency, even during tailgate surges.”

More details about the upgrade, including advanced security solutions and upgrades to BART public transit stations, are available here.

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif.—NBC Sports has laid out the enormous scale of its coverage of Super Bowl LX (Seattle Seahawks vs. New England Patriots) on Sunday, February 8, with a host of stats showing that it will be deploying a NBC Sports’ team of more than 700 people along with 145 cameras, 130 microphones, 75 miles of cable, 22 mobile units, and a massive collection of additional tools and resources.

In all, NBCUniversal will present 90+ hours of Super Bowl-related coverage this week across multiple platforms including NBC, Telemundo, Peacock and Universo.

The game is part of what NBCUniversal is calling its “Legendary February” with its coverage of the Winter Olympics, the Super Bowl and the NBA All Star Weekend.

On Feb. 8, it will offer both Super Bowl LX and the Milan Cortina Olympic Winter Games converge across NBCUniversal platforms featuring pre-game show, the game, the awarding of the Lombardi Trophy in Santa Clara and multiple gold medal events in Milan and Livigno.

Following is NBC Sports’ coverage of Super Bowl LX “by the numbers”:

• 1st Super Bowl play-by-play assignment for Mike Tirico
• 2 SkyCams used by NBC Sports to cover the game (including “High Sky”)
• 2nd Seahawks-Patriots Super Bowl matchup presented by NBC Sports (Super Bowl XLIX)
• 3 Super Bowl games as a referee for NBC Sports rules analyst Terry McAulay
• 6th Super Bowl as game analyst for Cris Collinsworth (fifth featuring the New England Patriots)
• 9 Locations of NBC Sports’ hosts, analysts, and commentators around the Bay Area and Levi’s Stadium on Super Bowl Sunday
• 11 Combined Super Bowl victories among NBC Sports Super Bowl LX Pregame Show teammates Tony Dungy (XIII as a player with the Steelers, XLI as head coach of the Colts), Rodney Harrison (XXXVIII and XXXIX with the Patriots), Jason Garrett (XXVII, XXVIII, and XXX as a player with the Cowboys), Devin McCourty (XLIX, LI, and LIII with the Patriots), and guest analyst and former Los Angels Rams defensive tackle Aaron Donald (LVI)
• 16.5 Hours of combined Super Bowl LX and Winter Olympics coverage on NBC and Peacock on Sunday, Feb. 8
• 21 Hosts, analysts, and commentators around the Bay Area and Levi’s Stadium for Super Bowl Sunday
• 22 Mobile units on-site at Levi’s Stadium
• 23 Years between assignments as Super Bowl sideline reporter for Melissa Stark
• 75 Miles of camera and microphone cable
• 130 Microphones
• 145 Cameras used for Super Bowl (81, including fixed cameras on pylons, etc.) and pre-game (64) coverage
• 700 + NBC Sports employees on site in the Bay Area
• 396,000 feet of camera and microphone cable
• $10+ million Record cost of a 30-second advertisement during Super Bowl LX

NEW YORK—NBCUniversal will present a full day of 4K HDR live coverage on Feb. 8 of the Super Bowl LX and the Milan Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games on NBC and Peacock.

The 17 hours of coverage starting at 7 a.m. ET marks the first time a Super Bowl and Olympic Games will be presented in 4K HDR on the NBC broadcast network and the Peacock streaming service.

The Feb. 8 begins with live Winter Olympics coverage starting at 7 a.m. ET on NBC and Peacock, followed by Super Bowl pregame coverage at noon ET, game coverage at 6:30 p.m. ET and finishes with Primetime in Milan beginning at approximately 10:45 p.m. ET – providing fans with 17 hours of 4K HDR coverage.

These technological firsts are part of what NBCUniversal is calling “Legendary February”, an unprecedented month of major sporting events on one network, with Super Bowl LX, the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics, and NBA All-Star Weekend.

“When you’re about to present the biggest month in U.S. sports media history, you want to make sure you’re giving fans the best experience possible – so that’s exactly what we have planned on NBC and Peacock for Super Bowl LX, the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics, and NBA All-Star Weekend,” said Rick Cordella, president, NBC Sports. “Building on NBC Sports’ long-standing commitment to innovation across all platforms, we’ll be celebrating the action on the field, slopes and court with our signature storytelling, state-of-the-art production, and dynamic streaming features that together bring these incredible sporting events to life for audiences at home.”

As part of Legendary February, Peacock will also debut fan-favorite feature Multiview in beta on mobile during the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics and offer new sharing options for Olympic-related clips and mini-games.

In an industry first, Peacock’s popular Multiview feature will extend to mobile, launching in beta for the Winter Games. The four-box vertical display will showcase the top four events at any given time, as well as an event-specific Multiview for curling, all curated by NBC Sports producers. This builds on Peacock’s expansive experience for Legendary February that was previously announced, including Winter Olympics Highlights playlists in vertical video, the new feature Rinkside Live, mini-games and trivia.

In addition, for the first time, Peacock users will be able to share their favorite Winter Olympics Highlight clips and trivia and Prediction Game results with friends and family directly from mobile via text and social networks. The ability to share their wins creates an opportunity to spark friendly competition and foster connections – all while they are watching the world’s greatest sporting event unfold.

“Peacock is the first streamer to deliver major live sports at this scale, seamlessly presenting many simultaneous events, with millions of people coming to the platform at once, over several days,” said Patrick Miceli, CTO of NBCUniversal Media Group and Global Streaming. “This impressive performance is possible because of Peacock’s industry-leading infrastructure that supports unmatched reliability, especially under peak demand.”

Tech Highlights For Legendary February

NBC Sports also announced that its Super Bowl LX, which will be produced by Rob Hyland and Drew Escoff, an award-winning team who have worked on more than 10 Super Bowls combined, will use more than 80 cameras and 150 microphones, In addition, NBC will use new technologies like Weather Applied Metrics, which quantifies how past, present and future weather conditions impact the game. Fans will also see a new graphics package.

For the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics, fans can expect richer storytelling through increased aerial coverage via the more-extensive use of live drones, behind-the-scenes audio from team radio stations – translated live in real-time using AI as needed, and more access to friends and family reactions, including heart rate monitors and corresponding onscreen graphics.

For the first time in over 20 years, NBC will produce NBA All-Star Weekend onsite in Los Angeles, with a focus on getting fans closer to the action than ever before. New camera angles include additional views of the rim, super-slo-mo capabilities on nearly every camera, SkyCam, and Nucleus Pico mini cameras mounted at floor level on the basket stanchion, along with the new Peacock feature Courtside Live.

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.—Dolby Laboratories has signed on as an official signature partner of the Bay Area Host Committee (BAHC) for the 2026 Super Bowl and the week of festivities across the San Francisco Bay Area that will precede the Feb. 8 game.

“The Bay Area is synonymous with innovation, creativity and world-class experiences—values that are at the heart of our partnership with Dolby,” Zaileen Janmohamed, BAHC president and CEO. “Together, we will set a new bar for how technology can enhance major sporting events, while also investing in the people and communities that make this region so special.”

Dolby will showcase how Dolby Vision, Dolby Atmos and Dolby OptiView—the company’s new cloud video and streaming platform—are enabling immersive, real-time and more interactive streaming experiences, increasing audience engagement and bringing viewers closer to sports and entertainment.

The company’s suite of live sports innovations will power key events and community events surrounding the Super Bowl, to be played Feb. 8 at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif.

Through the partnership, Dolby will serve as Premier Partner of the BAHC Super Bowl LX Innovation Summit Presented by YouTube, a centerpiece of the weeklong program celebrating the Bay Area’s spirit of creativity and technology. The summit will feature immersive Dolby demonstrations, thought-leadership sessions and interactive installations.

Dolby will also play a leading role as the presenting partner of the BAHC Kickoff Party, set for Dolby’s San Francisco headquarters on Feb. 5.

In the week leading up to the game, fans and visitors will experience Dolby’s innovation, creativity and community through immersive activations and events across the Bay Area.

More information is available on the BAHC and Dolby websites.

NEW YORK—In news that highlights the importance of the NFL and sports for the TV and streaming industry, NBCUniversal is reporting record revenue for its 20th season of “Sunday Night Football,” with overall revenue increasing across all platforms. In addition, the company also announced it has sold out of all ad inventory for Super Bowl LX, which will be presented on NBC, Peacock and Telemundo on Feb. 8, 2026.

In addition to being sold out of the Super Bowl, NBCUniversal said it has sold out 90% of its separate NFL inventory.

The company did not provide specific revenue figures.

“Coming off of the strongest sports Upfront in our company’s history, Super Bowl LX has generated extraordinary interest from brands and allowed us to sell out of our ad inventory earlier than ever,” Peter Lazarus, executive vice president, NBC Sports & Olympics, Advertising and Partnerships, said. “The unprecedented demand from advertisers across the Super Bowl and our 20th season of ‘Sunday Night Football’ has made this upcoming NFL season our highest-grossing to date. With a monumental year ahead, we are proud of the incredible momentum thus far and are excited to offer both fans and brands an unrivaled slate of sports programming starting with NFL kick off.”

With advertisers leaning into live sports more than ever before, NBCUniversal also reported that it saw tremendous demand from advertisers for the Super Bowl, with packaged goods, entertainment, finance and alcohol remaining the top categories, while CPG, pharma, entertainment and QSR [quick service restaurants] continue to increase their spend. Digital investments in the Super Bowl also increased by 20% since the last Super Bowl on NBC, with more brands taking a 360-degree approach to advertising within the upcoming spectacle, the company reported.

It also noted that for the 20th season of “SNF,” NBCUniversal is welcoming more than 150 partners into its programming—nearly 40 of whom are new. Auto, insurance, retail, tech and QSR continue to be core categories spending across “SNF,” with pharma, finance, and tech increasing investments year over year. The company has also sold out of all key sponsorships for its NFL lineup with Toyota sponsoring Halftime.

The strength of NFL ad revenue comes in advance of number of high-profile sporting events in 2026. NBCU will be offering fans the Super Bowl, the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics and the NBA All-Star Game in a 17-day span this upcoming February.

The momentum continues that spring and summer with the WNBA, the NBA Playoffs, and the 2026 Men’s FIFA World Cup on Telemundo, followed by the WNBA Finals and Big Ten Championship Game in the fall.

NEW YORK—YouTube hit record share of monthly TV viewing in February and had the largest share of TV viewing by the major media companies, according to Nielsen’s February 2025 Media Distributor Gauge, which ranks media companies by the combined share of TV viewing their various networks and outlets achieve.

In February YouTube gained two share points over January to capture 11.6% of time spent watching TV across the month. This marks YouTube’s best share of TV to date, and is the second time the pure-play streamer has topped the Media Distributor Gauge since Nielsen began tracking in November 2023.

Disney came in second with 10%, followed by Fox, which moved up to the third spot for the first time with 8.3% on the strength of Super Bowl Viewing. Netflix was tied for fourth with Paramount at 8.2%, followed by NBCU (8.1%), Warner Bros. Discovery (6.1%) and Amazon (3.5%).

Nielsen reported that YouTube has exhibited steady usage increases for some time. A longer-term look at the platform’s growth illustrates that time spent watching YouTube on television is up 53% versus two years ago in February 2023, and its share of TV has grown from 7.9% to 11.6% in that time, according to Nielsen’s The Gauge™ reports.

Interestingly, the data also showed that the overall viewing bump has been increasingly driven by older audiences. YouTube viewing from adults aged 65+ has nearly doubled in the last two years (+96%), and the demographic now represents a viewing contribution similar to that from kids 2-11 (15.4% vs. 16.9%).

Fox-owned entities gained 5% in February on the strength of a successful multi-platform Super Bowl, in addition to a 3% bump in Fox News Channel viewership, which drove 37% of the company’s total viewing. Fox Sports 1 viewership was also up 45% compared with January, primarily attributable to NASCAR events. Overall, Fox achieved an 8.3% share of TV usage in February and climbed from sixth to third in the rankings to notch its highest placement to date in the Media Distributor Gauge.

Following its best monthly performance to date in the Media Distributor Gauge, which was driven by NFL games and the College Football Playoffs, Disney lost two share points in February. This impact dropped them out of the top slot for only the third time since the inception of the Media Distributor Gauge, the researchers noted.

NEW YORK—Despite the boost provided by massive viewing of the Super Bowl on Feb. 9, a new report from Nielsen’s The Gauge shows that streaming increased its share of total TV viewing to a record 43.% in February. That propelled streaming to less than one share point away from the 44.4% share of viewing held by traditional broadcast and cable TV.

Super Bowl Sunday typically ranks as one of the most heavily viewed days of television each year, and this year’s Super Bowl Sunday, February 9, tracked with historic trends as TV viewing across the day exceeded 110 billion viewing minutes, the report noted. This total day viewership milestone has been reached just one other time since The Gauge launched in May 2021, with Super Bowl Sunday on February 11, 2024, leading by a relatively slim margin of about 500 million minutes.

A record-breaking 127.7 million viewers watched Fox’s broadcast of Super Bowl LIX, including a simulcast streamed on Tubi, Fox’s free streaming service. That further illustrated how cross-platform distribution has materialized into real world success, Nielsen’s The Gauge reported.

While previous Super Bowls have offered alternative streaming options, Tubi’s free platform provided a way for the Big Game to reach even more viewers that usual, the researchers explained.

As the game aired live, Tubi represented a third of all streaming usage and multiplied its audience to nearly 16 times its January 2025 average. Viewers that watched Tubi during the Super Bowl were 38% more likely to be 18-34 than the total game average, and also skewed slightly female. Overall, Tubi’s February usage was up 17% over January to finish with 2.0% of total TV watch-time, its largest share since July 2024.

Following typical seasonal trends, time spent watching television decreased from January to February. Streaming was least impacted, however, and the category gained 0.9 share points versus January to account for 43.5% of total viewing time this month, marking its largest share of the TV viewership pie to date. By comparison, broadcast (21.2%) and cable (23.2%) combined to account for 44.4% of TV in February, the report explained.

Time spent watching YouTube on TV in February was up 2.5% versus last month to represent 11.6% of total TV viewing—a record for YouTube and the streaming category overall. Additionally, nearly 27% of time spent streaming in February was dedicated to watching YouTube., the researchers noted.

Following its platform-best performance achieved last month, Netflix represented the second largest share among streaming services in February with 8.2% of TV. Netflix also owned the top streaming program in February with its original action-thriller series The Night Agent, which captured 6 billion viewing minutes across the month. Bluey on Disney+ was second with 4.2 billion minutes., the report found.

Among cable viewing, the championship game in the inaugural NHL 4 Nations Face-Off drew this month’s largest cable audience, with 9.3 million viewers on ESPN. Fox News Channel represented the next 13 top cable telecasts, as cable news gained 8% over January to represent 27% of all cable viewing in February.

On broadcast, the Super Bowl and its pregame and postgame programs on Fox were followed by NBC’s Saturday Night Live 50th Anniversary Special with 16.5 million viewers, and The Grammys on CBS with 16.2 million viewers. Broadcast dramas, which accounted for the largest share of broadcast viewing in February (27%), were up 15% versus last month and led by CBS’ Tracker (10.6 million) and Matlock (9.4 million).

Last month’s post-season success for the NFL and College Football Playoffs meant an even steeper decline for traditional TV viewing in February. This was most obvious among sports events viewership, which fell 54% on broadcast and 42% on cable versus January. Despite strong showings by the Super Bowl and aforementioned top telecasts, total broadcast fell by 10% to account for 21.2% of TV (-1.3 pts.). Meanwhile, cable declined 9% and totaled 23.2% of TV (-1.2 pts.).

The February 2025 interval dates included 01/27/2025 through 02/23/2025. Nielsen reporting follows the broadcast calendar with measurement weeks that run Monday through Sunday.

LOS ANGELES—Fox Corporation's presentation of Super Bowl LIX on Fox and Tubi generated over $800 million in gross revenue from advertising sales across all platforms. The event also saw record pricing for the sold-out game, Fox reported.

“The clear winners Sunday night were the Eagles, the NFL, and Fox. Congratulations to our teams at Fox Sports and Tubi for a record-breaking and historic Super Bowl LIX, the most-watched, most-streamed, and most successful Super Bowl ever,” said Lachlan Murdoch, executive chair and CEO, Fox Corporation.

The game saw a record-setting average audience of 127.7 million viewers watch the Philadelphia Eagles’ 40-22 victory over the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LIX. The 127.7 million viewers set a new all-time high mark for Super Bowl viewership (up +3% vs. 123.7 million viewers last year) featuring fans across all platforms, including television (Fox, Fox Deportes and Telemundo) and digital (Tubi and NFL digital properties, including NFL+), Fox reported, citing Nielsen data.

The big game peaked at 137.7 million viewers in the second quarter (8:00 PM – 8:15 PM ET), per Nielsen.

Fox Super Bowl LIX Pregame coverage averaged 23.4 million viewers from 1:00 PM ET to kick-off. It ranks as the best for a Super Bowl pregame starting at 1:00 PM on record. The pre-kick portion averaged 82.5 million viewers, up +9% over last year’s 75.8 million viewers.

The Apple Music Super Bowl Halftime Show, starring Kendrick Lamar, drew an average of 133.5 million viewers across television and digital platforms from 8:30 PM – 8:45 PM ET (up +3% vs. 129.3 million viewers last year), setting a new record as most-watched Super Bowl halftime performance in history

In addition, Tubi’s simulcast of Fox’s Super Bowl LIX broadcast broke the Super Bowl streaming record as part of the networks special game day takeover, reaching 5 million peak concurrent streaming viewers and a 13.6 million average minute audience, up by a decisive margin from prior Super Bowls. Tubi also saw 24 million unique viewers access the platform across game day programming starting with Fox’s pregame show.

For Super Bowl LIX Tubi leveraged Fox’s state-of-the-art livestreaming operation in Tempe, Arizona to deliver the highest quality, 4K live stream.

NEW YORK—TAG Video Systems and Witbe have formed a strategic partnership to elevate video monitoring and quality assurance across the entire over-the-top content-delivery chain.

The companies will combine TAG’s advanced monitoring, including its Content Matching technology, and Witbe’s Virtual NOC offering automated video monitoring on real devices. The combination enables an end-to-end monitoring solution that covers the entire video delivery path, from the source feed to the actual viewer experience across multiple devices and locations, TAG said.

“This partnership marks another milestone in TAG’s mission to deliver multi-app monitoring at scale through our Realtime Media Platform,” TAG Chief Growth Officer Ziv Mor said. “With Witbe’s unique user-device perspective, we’re closing the loop on end-to-end visibility. Our customers now have critical insight all the way to the viewer’s device, allowing them to track virtually every quality aspect, including latency, across the entire network from source to screen, and proactively address the ongoing demand for a better and seamless viewer experience.”

As part of their collaboration, TAG and Witbe joined forces to conduct a case study during the Super Bowl, demonstrating the strengths and value proposition of their partnership. The case study showcased their combined technologies in action, assessing both the network and the content delivered at the end-user level, TAG said.

This included monitoring app performance, initial buffering time and content matching to verify the stream’s integrity. The study also measured latency between the various streaming platforms, which would not be possible without visibility into the end-user stream, the companies said.

Together, the companies conducted comprehensive monitoring of the game as it streamed across several traditional cable providers and OTT services, providing insights into how major platforms handled the delivery of a seamless viewing experience during a high-profile live event, the companies said.

“At Witbe, we are constantly pushing the boundaries of monitoring and automated testing, so our customers can accurately measure the true quality of experience they deliver to their viewers,” Witbe CEO Mathieu Planche said. “Partnering with TAG allows us to solve two critical challenges for our customers: accurately measuring the end-to-end latency and ensuring the correct content reaches end-user devices.

“With our combined expertise, we can now not only provide content providers and broadcasters with the ability to measure the true quality of their services on real test devices but also gain insights into how their streams perform across the network,” Planche continued.

The combined solution monitors and enables visualization of the entire content delivery workflow; measures and compares latency across different platforms; accesses KPIs such as initial buffering time, video quality, macro blocking and app performance; and ensures the right content is streamed across the delivery path all the way to end-user devices, according to the companies. It also verifies content switching to detect any expected or unexpected changes, they said.

For the game, the combination collected real-time data on latency differences between OTT and traditional broadcast platforms; streaming performance under peak traffic conditions; visual and audio quality across networks and devices; real-time error detection and troubleshooting; and matching.

Results of the monitoring session are available on the Witbe and TAG Video Systems websites.

(Editor’s note: The numbers quoted by Fox Sports in this story have been updated based on a press release issued at 1:35 p.m. CST.)

NEW ORLEANS—The number of viewers of Sunday’s Super Bowl across Fox, Fox Deportes, Tubi, Telemundo and NFL Digital Properties averaged 127.7 million and peaked in the second quarter at 137.7 million—a record for the game, according to Fox Sports.

Streaming of the game via Tubi and NFL digital properties also set a record, reaching 14.5 million viewers. The average audience watching Tubi was 13.6 million—94% higher than in 2023, the last time Fox televised the Big Game.

AdImpact, drawing on its Advanced TV panel monitoring of 23 million smart TVs, reported peak viewership reached 152.4 million at 8:16 p.m. EST, just before halftime. Average viewership for the game was 137.7 million, breaking previous records, it said.

Linear viewing, including those watching via a set-top box, direct cable connection or TV antenna, accounted for 51% of the total. Ten percent of the linear audience watched Fox Deportes. Streaming viewers accounted for 49%—up from 41.5% in 2024. Tubi accounted for 18.7% of the streaming audience, YouTube and YouTube TV, 12.8% and other streaming services 17.4%, Fox said.

Samba TV also reported its findings, showing a slight dropoff in U.S. TV households watching compared to 2024.

Fox reported:

• 37.1 million U.S. households watched the Super Bowl—5% lower than last year’s game but higher than 2022 and 2023 by 1% to 2%.
• 28.8 million households watched Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl halftime show performance, 4% fewer than watched Usher’s 2024 halftime performance.
• 311,000 households tuned in to just watch the halftime show, down 8% from last year’s halftime performance.
• This year’s halftime show marked the viewership high point. Total viewership fell to 70% by the end of the game. In 2024, the game ended with 89% of peak viewership.
• The Super Bowl audience skewed towards white households (up 5% compared to the U.S. overall). However, among households that only watched the halftime show, Black households were 25% more likely to watch. For the game itself, Black households under-indexed by 6%.
• Across the top 25 DMAs—with Kansas City included—viewership over-indexed by the highest margin, along with Pittsburgh (+25%), Boston (+14%) and Minneapolis (+13%). Kansas City and Philadelphia over-indexed by +11% and +9%, respectively.

USA Today’s Ad Meter ranked the top 57 Super Bowl commercials. Budweiser’s “First Delivery,” topped the list, followed by Lay’s “The Little Farmer” and “Michelob ULTRA’s “The ULTRA Hustle.”

ATLANTA—Gray Media has announced that it will be using NextGen TV broadcasts to offer enhancements to its coverage of the Super Bowl. As part of the effort, Gray Media will broadcast Super Bowl on Feb. 9 using High Dynamic Range (HDR) at all their Fox affiliates who have launched NextGen TV/ATSC 3.0 broadcast, allowing viewers in eight markets to watch the biggest game of the year with improved contrast between the brightest and darkest colors on the screen.

In addition, Gray added GameLoop, a new NextGen TV free gaming channel, in two markets this week.

Gray has previously described its plans to use NextGen TV broadcasts to offer HDR feeds to TV Tech.

For the Super Bowl, WVUE, Gray’s Fox affiliate in this year’s Super Bowl host market of New Orleans, recently launched both Dolby Vision and HDR10+ formats, along with four other Gray Fox affiliates: WHNS in Greenville-Spartanburg, SC and Asheville, NC, WBRC in Birmingham, Alabama, KPTV in Portland, Oregon, and WALA in Mobile, Alabama.

Gray previously launched HDR enhancements at three other Gray Fox affiliates: KVVU in Las Vegas, Nevada, WXIX in Cincinnati, Ohio, and WFLX in West Palm Beach, Florida.

“Live sports events are the perfect venue to experience the vivid imagery and immersive audio of NextGen TV,” Gray’s Chief Operating Officer Sandy Breland said. “With these upgrades, millions of fans in our markets can enjoy the highest quality in picture and sound, over-the-air and for free this weekend.”

In addition, Gray added GameLoop, a new NextGen TV free gaming channel, in two markets this week. GameLoop allows users to play iconic games like Pac-Man, Tetris, and Doodle Jump on select NextGen TVs simply using their remote or mobile phone. The slate of games also includes Planet Crossword, the first collaborative crossword experience designed for television.

GameLoop is available now over-the-air for free via WANF, Gray’s CBS affiliate in Atlanta, on channel 46.20 and on WVUE in New Orleans on channel 8.20. Gray plans to launch GameLoop in additional markets soon.

“NextGen TV enables countless advanced features to boost viewer experience,” said Rob Folliard, Gray’s senior vice president and currently the chairperson of NextGen TV consortium PearlTV. “We are excited to offer this new interactive option and will continue to increase NextGen TV offerings and value to our audience.”

NEW ORLEANS—Each broadcast network responsible for the production personnel, technologies and distribution deployed to present the Super Bowl takes the opportunity to tell the game’s story in its own unique way.

Job one for this year’s steward, Fox Sports, is to bring its personalities, such as former New England Patriots and Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady, to the table with the best tools available to tell that story, Fox Sports Executive Vice President of Technical and Field Operations Michael Davies said.

(Kickoff coverage of the Feb. 9 Super Bowl between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles begins at 6:30 p.m. EST. Fox Sports’ pregame starts at 1 p.m. EST. The game will air on Fox Television Stations and affiliates, as well as Fox Deportes and Telemundo. Streamers can watch the game via Tubi or FuboTV, with a free trial.)

Brady, who will be calling his first Super Bowl as an analyst, will have at his disposal an elaborate high SkyCam setup based on the new Sony HDC-P50A, a 4K box camera running at 240 frames per second. Equipped with both optical and digital zooms, the camera becomes what Davies describes as “a variety of cameras all in one.”

“One is an aerial All 22 [referring to a camera that captures all offensive and defensive players in the same shot],” Davies said. “You’ll see Tom [Brady] Telestrate on this thing all of the time because it’s what analysts want to see. They want to see everything in terms of how the plays are unfolding so they can explain what’s happening from an X’s and O’s point of view.”

“High SkyCams have been done for years,” Davies said. “Frankly, I don’t really know if we even knew why we were using them. But the one thing that the high SkyCam did was it sometimes really got in the way of how we use the low SkyCam.”

To avoid that, Fox Sports will position its high SkyCam between 55 feet and 90 feet above the field and its low SkyCam, a Sony HDC-P50, 12 feet to 35 feet off the surface. Equipped with both optical and high-resolution digital zoom, the high SkyCam can be zoomed into areas of interest and prevent “everything from looking like ants,” he said.

“Putting that [zoom capability] on the high SkyCam has been immeasurably valuable, and we tested this all the way back in the pre-season in Santa Clara with a prototype from Sony,” said Davies, adding the broadcaster brought it back for the end of the season.

Fox Sports will complement the SkyCam setup with the Sony Hawk-Eye system to do zoom-cropping. Hawk-Eye will give the Fox Sports analysts the visuals needed to discuss and explain what’s happened on the field, he added.

Camera Totals and More
Fox Sports will cover the pregame and game with 149 cameras, including 27 super slow-motion cameras, 24 robotic cameras, 23 high-resolution cameras, 12 wireless cameras and others. But that number can be a bit misleading, Davies said.

“When you get to these crazy camera totals, there are some cameras that just won’t get a tally. It just won’t happen,” he said. “They’re there just in case. Just in case that specific play—that specific little occurrence like whether the ball hit the ground or a toe crossed the line—happens.”

Fox Sports will produce the game in 1080p high dynamic range (HDR) and broadcast it in 4K HDR. Several Fox Sports distributors such as Charter Communications’ Spectrum, Comcast’s Xfinity TV, Sling TV, Verizon FiOS, YouTube TV and others, will carry the entire broadcast, including pregame, halftime and postgame, in 4K.

As with other live events, Fox Sports will produce in HDR using Hybrid Log Gamma (HLG). “That’s basically what’s available now,” Davies said. “Somewhere downstream there is a conversion to PQ [Perceptual Quantizer].”

Dolby and Comcast issued a joint press release earlier this week saying that Xfinity TV customers and Xfinity Stream App users will be able to watch in both Dolby Vision HDR and Dolby Atmos audio as part of Comcast’s new Enhanced 4K offering on X1.

Regardless of what happens downstream, Davies said the important thing HDR production must account for is that most viewers continue to watch in standard dynamic range. “It’s a matter of being able to shade in HDR but also make sure the SDR is preserved,” he said.

Fox Sports is also working with panamorphic cameras from COSM, a company specializing in immersive fan viewing experiences at its Dallas and Los Angeles venues. (COSM Los Angeles will present the Super Bowl.)

“What we do with these cameras is region of interest,” he said. Two COSM cameras will be placed on carts for shots of the sidelines and benches—a great application for the specialty cameras.

“Increasingly there are things you might want to see on the benches, but you don’t have dedicated cameras, because the cameras are all interested in what’s happening on the field,” he said.

Fox Sports will de-warp the fish-eye lens effect from the COSM cameras and pan around the video to find 16x9 areas of interest for air.

COSM cameras will also be used in all of the pylons that mark off the corners of both end zones. While the resolution of those cameras is not quite high enough for use at the COSM dome venues, the 60 fps cameras have the ability to interpolate frames to make replays smooth enough to be used, he said

“It’s really bleeding-edge stuff that we’re doing with these COSM cameras,” he said. “But the result is there’s not one square inch of the field that isn’t covered with a camera—not only that but covered well.”

Augmented Reality Graphics and Drones
For the Super Bowl, Fox Sports will use a newly developed solution for Augmented Reality graphics.

Combining a LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) system from Kudan, SkyTrax graphics tracking and some Fox Sports-developed software, the solution solves a problem that has plagued AR graphics that are smaller than full screen, Davies said.

“The LIDAR informs a system that is engaged with the [low] SkyCam telemetry system,” said Davies, adding that doing so increases the accuracy of positioning data—a crucial element to rock-solid augmented graphics.

“The problems in the past with reduced tracking accuracy gave rise to the possibility of shaking or mistracking,“ he said. ”The illusion of having a three-dimensional graphic on the field was completely broken when it starts not tracking accurately with the camera.”

As a result, the only safe use of augmented reality graphics was to go full-screen. “What this translates into is more confidence in being able to pop these graphics on and getting away from the full-screen graphics that take viewers out of the game,“ Davies said. “This allows us to put three-dimensional graphics in the game so viewers never actually leave the stadium and, in that way, stay more engaged.”

The broadcaster will also deploy drones as part of its coverage of the event. Given the close proximity of landmarks like Bourbon Street and the French Quarter to the stadium, drone footage will be used to give viewers the feeling of being in New Orleans.

Fox Sports is tapping the airborne expertise of Beverly Hills Aerials as it has in the past for the Daytona 500, the World Series and its last Super Bowl, to fly the drones and ensure their operation complies with league rules and local law enforcement, he said.

Shots from the drones will be used “for everything from features to added color in support of interviews and events,” Davies said.

While broadcasters have often deployed the television production equivalent of a secret weapon to cover the Super Bowl, Davies said that approach doesn’t fit in with his orientation to covering the game.

“If you bring some esoteric thing out there and that is only used once for the Super Bowl and the production team has never had a chance to use it, it’s difficult to wedge it in,” he said. “Frankly, it’s unfair to give that to a production team and just say, ‘OK, now you’ve got this thing, and you’ve got to use it and make it part of the story.’ ”

Davies is confident that whether it’s the addition of the new LIDAR technology, the COSM cameras, the high SkyCam or any of the other tech that will go into game coverage, the production team is familiar with it and ready to make it a part of the Fox Sports telling of the Super Bowl story.

PHILADELPHIA and SAN FRANCISCO.—In a first for Super Bowl coverage, Comcast and Dolby have announced that Fox’s coverage of the Super Bowl on Feb. 9 will be delivered in both Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos.

The experience will be available to Xfinity TV customers as part of Comcast’s new Enhanced 4K offering on X1 and on the Xfinity Stream App.

“Enhanced 4K” provides customers with an unmatched viewing experience with the best picture and audio quality delivered to the home in the fastest way possible, according to Comcast, so the action customers see in their living room is only seconds behind the game as it unfolds in New Orleans.

“The Super Bowl is another example of how Xfinity is redefining the sports-viewing experience through innovations in our network and with the latest innovations from partners like Dolby,” Comcast Vice President, Sports Entertainment, Connectivity and Platforms Vito Forlenza said. “With the clearest picture quality and the most-realistic audio possible, we’re offering customers a viewing experience they can’t get anywhere else for the biggest live sporting event of the year. Plus, we’re delivering it as fast as possible over our state-of-the-art network so customers can feel like they’re witnessing every exciting moment at the same time as the fans in the Superdome.”

“Dolby and Comcast share a long history of delivering unparalleled, first-of-their-kind experiences to fans, and today marks another milestone in our journey to transform the future of live sports,” said Jason Power, vice president, AV ecosystem, Dolby Laboratories. “Together, we continue to raise the bar by offering Xfinity customers an immersive experience that brings the sights and sounds of the game to life like never before.”

In another first, Comcast also announced that Xfinity customers can also enjoy this 4K viewing experience with Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos through the Xfinity Stream app, which is available on compatible Dolby-enabled streaming devices and TVs.

First launched for last year’s Paris Summer Olympics, Comcast explained that “Enhanced 4K” is a new quality standard to live sports delivered in 4K on X1. It leverages Comcast’s network technology to deliver the best-possible 4K video, ultra-low latency, Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos.

Comcast also noted that Enhanced 4K joins a host of other immersive and interactive features on X1. These features include: multiview, where customers can watch up to four events at once on the same screen; aggregated sports hubs, which make finding any game fast and easy; and Odds Zone, a companion experience where fans can watch and wager with leading sportsbooks directly on TV.

The Super Bowl has long been one of the last bastions of appointment television—an event that still commands mass live viewership in an era where traditional broadcast audiences are fragmenting. Yet, as new research from AdTaxi suggests, the way fans engage with the game is rapidly evolving, the survey finding that nearly 70% of the audience now utilize secondary media to interact with Super Bowl-related content and streaming platforms are now on par with traditional TV as a primary viewing method.

These shifts underscore a larger transformation in how sports content is consumed, moving us firmly into a new era of the content continuum—a seamless blend of live, linear, on-demand, social, and interactive experiences. The shift we are seeing with the Super Bowl exemplifies a broader transformation in how audiences, particularly younger generations, engage with major live events. This shift is not confined to sports—it extends to award ceremonies and other significant broadcasts, reflecting a fundamental change in content consumption patterns.

The Expanding Super Bowl Experience
The Super Bowl is no longer just about the game. It’s about the total experience, from pre-game hype and player interviews to real-time social media commentary and post-game analysis. Fans expect content that extends beyond the live broadcast, with bite-sized, on-demand clips and interactive digital engagement becoming just as crucial as the event itself.

The AdTaxi data reflects this: With 77% of respondents indicating they will watch, listen, or follow the event, half will “tune in” using digital video (connected TV or streaming services)—exceeding traditional cable and broadcast TV’s combined 32% share of the total audience. This is the content continuum in action—where the value of sports media is no longer confined to a single, linear broadcast.

The Broader shift in Viewer Behavior
The 2025 Super Bowl reflect a wider trend in sports, as younger viewers – especially those from Generation Z— exhibit distinct media consumption habits that differ from previous generations. They favor short-form, on-demand content and interactive experiences over traditional, linear broadcasts. This preference has led to the rise of the "clip culture," where highlights, behind-the-scenes footage, and personalized content are highly valued.

This trend is evident as many younger fans prefer watching highlights over full games, according to data from a YouGov Sports Whitepaper. The study showed that a 34% of engaged global sports fans aged 18 to 24 prefer watching clips or highlights to watching live games in their entirety, while 14% follow games on social media.

Unlocking New Revenue and Engagement Opportunities|
For rightsholders, the growing shift toward streaming, social media, and on-demand platforms presents both challenges and opportunities. Traditional broadcast models, which rely on high-value live rights, must now incorporate a multi-platform approach that extends the lifecycle of content.

By leveraging cloud-based production and AI tools, rightsholders can create and distribute real-time game clips, social media highlights, behind-the-scenes footage, and interactive live streams – ensuring that sports coverage is not just an event, but an ongoing, interactive narrative.

In embracing the content continuum, organizers extend the lifecycle of their sports events, encompassing pre-game build-up, live interactions during the event, and post-event highlights and analyses. This approach not only caters to the viewing preferences of younger audiences but also creates additional opportunities for engagement and further monetization.

The Cloud-Powered Future of Sports Media
The acceleration of cloud-based production workflows is one of the biggest enablers of this new media landscape. Where traditional production methods required hours to repackage live content into highlights and clips, cloud technology and AI-driven editing can do this in near real-time. The ability to instantly publish key plays, social media-friendly snippets, and interactive features across platforms ensures that rightsholders remain relevant in an environment where immediacy is everything.

For leagues, broadcasters, and digital platforms, this is a wake-up call: the future of live sports is not just about securing high-value rights—it’s about maximizing the value of every moment within the content continuum.

Embracing the New Playbook

As the Super Bowl demonstrates, the days of a single-screen, one-way viewing experience are fading into the past. Sports fans now demand multi-platform, interactive, and always-on content, and rightsholders must adapt to remain competitive. The winners in this space will be those who rethink their content strategies, embrace real-time production tools, and recognize that the game doesn’t end when the final whistle blows—it lives on in every clip, post, and conversation that follows.

This is the new era of sports content consumption. The question is: are rightsholders ready to play?

The Super Bowl is no longer just about the game. It’s about the total experience, from pre-game hype and player interviews to real-time social media commentary and post-game analysis. Fans expect content that extends beyond the live broadcast, with bite-sized, on-demand clips and interactive digital engagement becoming just as crucial as the event itself.

The AdTaxi data reflects this: With 77% of respondents indicating they will watch, listen, or follow the event, half will “tune in” using digital video (connected TV or streaming services)—exceeding traditional cable and broadcast TV’s combined 32% share of the total audience. This is the content continuum in action—where the value of sports media is no longer confined to a single, linear broadcast.

The Broader shift in Viewer Behavior
The 2025 Super Bowl reflect a wider trend in sports, as younger viewers – especially those from Generation Z— exhibit distinct media consumption habits that differ from previous generations. They favor short-form, on-demand content and interactive experiences over traditional, linear broadcasts. This preference has led to the rise of the "clip culture," where highlights, behind-the-scenes footage, and personalized content are highly valued.

This trend is evident as many younger fans prefer watching highlights over full games, according to data from a YouGov Sports Whitepaper. The study showed that a 34% of engaged global sports fans aged 18 to 24 prefer watching clips or highlights to watching live games in their entirety, while 14% follow games on social media.

Unlocking New Revenue and Engagement Opportunities|
For rightsholders, the growing shift toward streaming, social media, and on-demand platforms presents both challenges and opportunities. Traditional broadcast models, which rely on high-value live rights, must now incorporate a multi-platform approach that extends the lifecycle of content.

By leveraging cloud-based production and AI tools, rightsholders can create and distribute real-time game clips, social media highlights, behind-the-scenes footage, and interactive live streams – ensuring that sports coverage is not just an event, but an ongoing, interactive narrative.

In embracing the content continuum, organizers extend the lifecycle of their sports events, encompassing pre-game build-up, live interactions during the event, and post-event highlights and analyses. This approach not only caters to the viewing preferences of younger audiences but also creates additional opportunities for engagement and further monetization.

The Cloud-Powered Future of Sports Media
The acceleration of cloud-based production workflows is one of the biggest enablers of this new media landscape. Where traditional production methods required hours to repackage live content into highlights and clips, cloud technology and AI-driven editing can do this in near real-time.

The ability to instantly publish key plays, social media-friendly snippets, and interactive features across platforms ensures that rightsholders remain relevant in an environment where immediacy is everything.

For leagues, broadcasters, and digital platforms, this is a wake-up call: the future of live sports is not just about securing high-value rights—it’s about maximizing the value of every moment within the content continuum.

Embracing the New Playbook
As the Super Bowl demonstrates, the days of a single-screen, one-way viewing experience are fading into the past. Sports fans now demand multi-platform, interactive, and always-on content, and rightsholders must adapt to remain competitive.

The winners in this space will be those who rethink their content strategies, embrace real-time production tools, and recognize that the game doesn’t end when the final whistle blows—it lives on in every clip, post, and conversation that follows.

This is the new era of sports content consumption. The question is: are rightsholders ready to play?

DirecTV said it has significantly expanded its MySports package, which includes 40 national sports and local broadcast channels, to 122 Nielsen designated market areas (DMAs) across the U.S. in the few weeks since the package was launched.

DirecTV is currently promoting MySports for $49.99 a month for the first three months, a $20 monthly savings.

“The recent launch of MySports from DirecTV is delivering consumers more choice and flexibility in how they watch and pay for their favorite programming,” DirecTV chief marketing officer Vince Torres said. “We are excited to expand the availability of MySports today to more than 100 markets and will continue to enhance the package and make additional genre options available in the near future.”

During this rapid expansion, an additional 104 Fox stations have opted into the new service.

In addition to including all Fox-owned and operated stations at launch, the package also includes support from all of America’s largest broadcast station groups— including Cox Media Group, Gray Media, Nexstar Media Group, E.W. Scripps, Sinclair and others. That has positioned DirecTV to make MySports available nationally in time for the Super Bowl on Fox on Feb. 9, the Daytona 500 on Fox on Feb. 16 and the NBA All-Star Weekend on TNT and ESPN on Feb. 14-16.

MySports initially rolled out to 24 Nielsen markets, including 16 of the top 20, on Jan. 14. These additions expand that reach by an additional 100 cities. MySports is now available to sports fans in every top-50 market with more stations and markets added daily, DirecTV said.

Some of the key new cities where MySports is now available include Denver; Cleveland; Sacramento, California; St. Louis; Charlotte, North Carolina; Pittsburgh; Portland, Oregon; Baltimore; Indianapolis; Nashville, Tennessee; San Antonio, Texas; Columbus, Ohio; Kansas City; Salt Lake City; Cincinnati; Greenville, North Carolina; West Palm Beach. Florida; Las Vegas; Oklahoma City; Norfolk, Virginia; Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; Grand Rapids, Michigan; Birmingham, Alabama; Greensboro, North Carolina; Jacksonville, Florida; Albuquerque, New Mexico; Louisville, Kentucky; and New Orleans, among several others.

National sports channels and stations owned by The Walt Disney Co. (ABC) and NBCUniversal (NBC) were already included in MySports, and DirecTV will continue to add additional ABC and NBC affiliates as their respective owners choose to be available through MySports, too.

Sports fans can stream MySports through the DirecTV app on mobile devices or popular platforms like Roku, Amazon Fire, and Apple TV. MySports also offers game-time notifications and the ability to watch now on live TV or later through unlimited cloud DVR.

Sports channels immediately available through MySports include ACC Network, Big Ten Network, DirecTV 4K Live, DirecTV 4K Live 2, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNews, ESPNU, Fox Sports 1, Fox Sports 2, Golf Channel, SEC Network, and USA Network, among many, many others. Channels from each major professional sports league—NFL Network, NBA TV, NHL Network, and MLB Network—are all included at no additional cost. MySports also includes all the Warner Bros. Discovery sports networks, including TNT, TBS, and TruTV that will be televising games in the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament coming up in March and April.

In addition, MySports customers also have access to the full lineup of MyFree DirecTV ad-supported sports channels, including sports networks like ACC Digital Network, Big 12, Fight Network, Fuel TV, Origin Sports, Pickleball TV, Players TV, Sports Grid, Stadium Stream, Surfer TV, Swerve Combat, T2, The Jim Rome Show, TNA, Torque by History, Waypoint TV and Women’s Sports Network.

More networks, local stations and ESPN+, will be included in MySports at no extra cost in the near future, the operator said.

In addition, DirecTV plans to offer local sports fans the option to add regional sports networks and team networks, including the recently announced Rangers Sports Network, as an add-on to MySports later this year.

Zeam Media, a provider of broadcast OTT technology as well as the hyperlocal streaming platform Zeam, announced today that it is again collaborating with John Stamos on a Super Bowl spot that will air on Fox stations in top markets across the country during the big game next month.

Stamos, who introduced the new Zeam streaming platform to millions of viewers in a spot during last year’s Super Bowl that aired in top DMAs across the country and has since been named Zeam’s chief innovation officer, will again star in a comedic ad to promote the service.

The new ad caps off Zeam’s first, highly successful year since launch, with the platform now featuring close to 300 local broadcast stations, over 300 curated shows and achieving a viewership increase of 224% between Feb. 13, 2024 and Jan. 16, 2025, according to the company.

Zeam currently features streams from local stations across the country and has partnerships with top local broadcast groups such as Gray Media, CBS Stations, News Press & Gazette, Morgan Murphy, and others.

True to Zeam’s local focus, this year’s Zeam Super Bowl commercial will air in over 40 top markets on local Fox stations across the country that will air the game. Similar to last year’s spot, Stamos will comedically reinforce the idea that Zeam speaks for itself and doesn’t need a celebrity spokesperson—but what it does need is a fancy jingle. You can view both 15 and 30-second versions of the spot HERE.

Since launching last year, Zeam, with its moniker “Always Local, Always Free,” has promoted itself as a premiere destination for local news, sports and culture. Formerly Syncback, the company later rebranded itself as Zeam Media.

Jack Perry, CEO of Zeam Media, said: “Last year, we were able to make a big splash during the Super Bowl with an ad featuring John Stamos that introduced Zeam to America. One year later, we’ve seen tremendous growth and have reached notable milestones, including bringing John on board as Chief Innovation Officer, but one thing has remained the same: Zeam continues to be the ultimate destination to stream local news, sports and events from across the country, for free. We’re proud to work with John to bring that message back to Super Bowl viewers for a second time, in a way only John can.”

Stamos was named Chief Innovation Officer for Zeam Media in July. In the role, the actor guides and facilitates the development of new content partnerships for Zeam, while also serving as its brand ambassador. In addition to last year’s Super Bowl ad, Stamos also starred with Perry in an 8-minute mockumentary called “Going Full Jack,” where Stamos fully embodies the role of Perry in preparation for an upcoming Zeam commercial.

Stamos said: “What drew me to Zeam was its groundbreaking vision for delivering local content to viewers from all over the country—something I could deeply relate to. My first shot at showbiz, performing a puppet show at a church fair, was covered by my local station and gave me the confidence to chase my dream. I always knew Zeam was important, but during the L.A. fires, it became almost life-saving. I used Zeam 24/7, and when my power cable and other communication channels went out, Zeam was my lifeline—keeping me informed and connected when I needed it most. It’s been incredibly rewarding to work with Zeam, and as our latest Super Bowl ad shows, it’s also been a lot of fun.”

MIAMI—Telemundo has laid out plans for extensive Spanish-language coverage of the Super Bowl on Feb. 9 that includes a large slate of programming across the network’s news and entertainment shows and platforms.

The Super Bowl is available to watch on Telemundo, Fox, Fox Deportes, Tubi and across NFL digital properties with unauthenticated access across devices. Fox Deportes and NBCUniversal-owned Telemundo partnered to air the upcoming game in Spanish on both networks in a deal that will provide the broadest Spanish-language distribution in the U.S. for any Super Bowl in history. (The English-language telecast will air on Fox.)

To capture all the action, Telemundo Deportes will be joined by the network’s news and entertainment talent and shows on-site from New Orleans, supported by in-studio coverage throughout the week leading up to when the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles kick off on Sunday, Feb. 9, at 6:30 p.m. (ET). Super Bowl Sunday will feature more than eight hours of coverage across platforms, delivering a comprehensive experience for fans.

“After a record-breaking broadcast in 2022, we are thrilled to offer Spanish-language coverage of Super Bowl LIX to the widest Spanish-language audience in history, expanding access to the premier event and supporting the growing fandom of American football among Latinos,” said Joaquin Duro, executive vice president of sports, NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises. “We are committed to bringing fans closer to the Super Bowl experience beyond the game by showcasing the culture, fans, and the colorful stories that surround the sport in a relevant and meaningful way across the network’s shows and platforms.”

The network’s NFL commentary team, featuring Emmy Award-winning play-by-play announcer Miguel Gurwitz and Emmy-nominated color analyst and former Arizona Cardinals offensive lineman Rolando Cantú, will spearhead on-the-ground coverage. They will be joined by a team of network reporters and journalists, including Julio Vaqueiro and Jessica Carrillo, to cover all the angles and storylines, reporting from key production locations across New Orleans, including Caesars Superdome, the NFL Experience and the vibrant French Quarter.

Other highlights include:

• ‘Noticias Telemundo’: Noticias Telemundo anchor Vaqueiro joins the coverage to discuss the news stories surrounding the Super Bowl. Senior correspondent Rogelio Mora-Tagle will do in-depth reports on the ground highlighting the resilience and rebuilding of New Orleans on the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina and the extreme security surrounding the event.
• ‘Hoy Día’: Leading up to game day, Telemundo’s morning show will feature special segments to celebrate the Super Bowl, including everything from cooking segments with Chef Rafa inspired by game-day favorites to the halftime performances.
• ‘En Casa con Telemundo’: The network’s daytime entertainment show hosted by Carlos Adyan will feature content about celebrities and personalities traveling to New Orleans to participate in the event.
• ‘Zona Mixta’: On Friday, Saturday and Sunday, Telemundo’s late-night sports news and entertainment show Zona Mixta include special segments from the main set with Caesars Superdome as backdrop at 11:30 p.m. ET or after network news.
• ‘Noticias Telemundo AHORA’ —3 p.m. ET: Live coverage hosted by Vaqueiro. This free streaming channel is widely available across platforms, including Peacock, Roku, YouTube, Samsung TV Plus and Fire TV.
• ‘Camino al Super Bowl’—4 p.m. ET – Telemundo: An extended two-hour pregame special on Telemundo, featuring Gurwitz and Cantú alongside network talent Vaqueiro, Carrillo, Frederick Oldenburg, and Verónica Rodríguez. The program will deliver analysis, debates, and highlights of the NFL’s commitment to Latino fans as well colorful stories and reports that go beyond the game.
• Super Bowl LIX—6 p.m. ET—Telemundo: The Spanish-language telecast begins at 6 p.m. ET with kickoff at 6:30 p.m. ET LIVE on Telemundo. Gurwitz and Cantú, the leading NFL commentary duo in Spanish, will capture every interception, pass, and touchdown with their signature energetic and knowledgeable approach.
• ‘Homenaje al Campeón’—10 p.m. ET—Telemundo: Programming concludes with Homenaje al Campeon at 10 p.m. ET showcasing postgame analysis, celebration of the winning team and the awarding of the Lombardi Trophy in New Orleans.

DENVER—Digital marketing agency Adtaxi has unveiled a new survey showing the Super Bowl has become a multiplatform experience, with almost 70% of Americans utilizing an average of two or more additional media platforms to engage in related content.

Adtaxi’s 2025 Super Bowl Survey also found that almost half of Americans choose streaming and connected TV over cable and broadcast options.

Another notable finding is that in the run-up to the Feb. 9 game pitting the Philadelphia Eagles against the Kansas City Chiefs, set to air on Fox, more adults said they were interested in the Super Bowl ads than the game itself or the halftime show.

“With the recent increase in data surrounding ‘double-screening,’ it is increasingly crucial for marketers to know and utilize the fact that the majority of Americans plan to utilize both their ‘big screen’ and ‘little screen’ while watching this year’s Super Bowl,” said Adtaxi director of research Murry Woronoff. “Social media has emerged as the top secondary media choice for audiences primarily using broadcast, cable, and radio. Marketing plans need to include both typical viewing options and social media campaigns to effectively reach intended audiences.”

Other key findings include:

• Game-Day Enthusiasm: Super Bowl ads once again reign supreme for pre-game anticipation, capturing the interest of 68% of adults, surpassing both the game and the halftime show. Interest in the game itself is firm among men (50%) and upper-income adults (47%), while women (38%) and younger adults under 45 (39%) demonstrate the strongest interest in the halftime show.
• Platform Audiences: The Super Bowl is no longer confined to traditional TV viewing. With 77% of respondents indicating they will watch, listen, or follow the event, half will “tune in” using digital video (connected TV or streaming services). This surpasses traditional cable and broadcast TV’s combined 32% share of the total audience.
• Secondary Engagement: Seven in 10 Super Bowl viewers will engage with secondary media platforms beyond their primary source. Social media has emerged as a top secondary media choice for viewers of Digital (46%), Cable and Broadcast TV (30%) viewers. Only 31% of respondents intend to only utilize one content source.
• The Continued Rise of Digital Video: Overall, 69% of viewers will incorporate digital video into their overall consumption on Super Bowl Sunday. 71% of audience members plan to use digital video as their primary source of viewing, while 29% will use it as a secondary source.
• Big-Game Betting: Adults who plan to place a Super Bowl-related wager represent a valuable opportunity. Among bettors, two-thirds (68%) anticipate spending under $200—nearly half will bet under $50. Only 13% are expected to wager $500 or more. As for platforms? More adults cited DraftKings when asked about placing sports bets, followed by FanDuel in second and BetMGM in third.

“The findings of our 2025 Super Bowl Survey show the increasing fragmentation in consumer media habits, allowing brands to capitalize on its multifaceted appeal,” said Chris Loretto, executive vice president of Adtaxi. “As the trends toward cord-cutting continue and social media platforms become more integral to live events, we see the Super Bowl’s distribution and engagement strategies shifting even more toward online. We predict the future bringing more personalized and targeted advertising, leveraging data analytics to tailor commercials to the viewer’s preferences—possibly in real-time.”

The full report is available to purchase here.

NEW YORK—Fox Sports said will be streaming the Feb. 9 Super Bowl for the first time via free streaming service Tubi, as well as providing coverage of the big game in New Orleans on Fox, Fox Deportes, NBCUniversal’s Telemundo and across NFL digital properties

Tubi will offer a 4K feed of the coverage.

The news that Tubi will be streaming the NFL’s title game comes as Fox Corp’s free ad-supported streaming streaming service has been reporting significant audience growth. Recently, Tubi released new data showing it surpassed 97 million monthly active users and streamed more than 10 billion hours of content in 2024.

Fox Sports also reported a variety of details surrounding what it is calling its special coverage “takeover” of the Super Bowl.

On Friday, Feb. 7, in addition to Fox Sports’ regularly scheduled daily studio programming on FS1, the network will showcase a special live presentation on the Fox broadcast network spotlighting FS1’s roster of shows and personalities. The lineup begins at noon ET with “First Things First”, followed by “The Facility” at 1 p.m. and “Speak” at 2 p.m.. At 3 p.m., “Breakfast Ball” takes center stage before handing off to “The Herd With Colin Cowherd” at 4 p.m..

On Tubi featured content is set to include Fox’s “Super Bowl LIX Pregame Show,” the game itself and a first-of-its-kind live preshow titled the “Tubi Red Carpet at Super Bowl LIX.”

Fox also reported that fans can get ready for the game by tuning into the NFL Channel on Tubi to catch “Countdown to the Super Bowl” starting Jan. 28, with historical Super Bowls, iconic halftime shows, best of NFL Honors, league analysis and more.

Complete details surrounding Fox Sports’ programming for the big game will be announced at a later date, Fox Sports said.

LOS ANGELES—Fox Deportes and Telemundo have inked a deal to put Spanish-language telecasts of this season’s Super Bowl, set for Feb. 9, 2025, on both networks.

The two companies said the arrangement will provide the broadest U.S. Spanish-language distribution for any Super Bowl in history. Fox Deportes, a cable network, and NBCUniversal-owned broadcaster Telemundo will produce separate telecasts; each will announce programming and coverage details in the lead-up to the game. Fox will air the English-language telecast of the NFL's title game, to be played at Ceasars Superdome in New Orleans.

“Since airing the first Super Bowl in U.S. Spanish-language history, Fox Deportes has been at the forefront of Spanish-language NFL coverage,” Carlos Sanchez, Fox Deportes executive vice president and general manager, said. “Both companies have played a pivotal role in the rapid growth of the league’s Hispanic fanbase and we are proud to collaborate with Telemundo to bring the Super Bowl to more Spanish-language viewers than ever before in a landmark moment for the league and its Spanish-language fans.”

NFL Executive Vice President, Media Distribution Hans Schroeder added: “Delivering live NFL games in Spanish is key to reaching the large and rapidly growing Spanish-speaking NFL fan base. We are constantly looking for ways to expand access to our games and reach more fans, and this partnership is another step forward. We are excited for the experience that Fox Deportes and Telemundo will create for Super Bowl LIX.”

Fox Deportes in 2015 was the first U.S. network to air the Super Bowl in Spanish. Next February’s contest will mark its fifth Super Bowl, the most of any Spanish-language network. Fox Deportes also holds the two most-watched Super Bowl telecasts in Spanish-language cable history.

This season, Fox Deportes is scheduled to air four marquee regular-season games, including New York Giants-Dallas Cowboys on Thanksgiving Day. Its postseason slate includes an NFC wild-card game, an NFC divisional playoff game and the NFC championship game.

In 2022, Telemundo became the first Spanish-language broadcast network to televise the Super Bowl, making it the most-watched Spanish-language NFL telecast in U.S. history. Telemundo enjoyed its best NFL viewership year in 2023.

Telemundo Deportes produces and distributes exclusive Spanish-language coverage of NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” games airing across Telemundo, cable network Universo, multicast network TeleXitos and Peacock, including 22 regular season games and two playoff games each season. It also airs NBC’s Super Bowls, including the upcoming 2026 title game.

“We are thrilled to partner with Fox Deportes to bring yet another milestone Super Bowl presentation en español,” Joaquin Duro, executive vice president, sports, NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises, said. “This collaboration highlights the strength of our network and furthers our shared mission to expand the sport’s reach within the Latino community, ensuring Spanish-speaking fans have access to this premiere event.”

New research data from Antenna not only reaffirms the power of NFL games to boost subscription rates for streaming services. It also suggests that a significant majority of those sign ups remain subscribed to the service in the weeks after the games. 

The newly released Antenna data shows that the Super Bowl LVIII game between Kansas City and San Francisco, which was the most watched program in decades, brought in 3.4 million sign up to the Paramount_ streaming service over the Super Bowl weekend. 

Paramount+ provided a free trial offer, and Antenna observed that 68%, or 2.3 million, of the Paramount) sign-ups came in through that promotion; the other 32%, or 1.1 million, signed-up as paid subscribers. 

By way of comparison, using a comparable three-day window, Antenna estimated that sign-ups for Peacock’s AFC Wild Card Game were 3.0 million. Peacock did not offer a free trial to coincide with the AFC Wild Card Game, so all of those sign-ups were paid. 

"While some may assume a majority of users who sign-up around tentpole events (like big NFL games) will quickly cancel, this isn’t borne out in the data," the researchers added in a blog post. 

In the case of Peacock, by the end of February, nearly seven weeks after the AFC Wild Card Weekend, Antenna observed 29% of the AFC Wild Card sign-up cohort had canceled their subscription, meaning 71% remained subscribed. Peacock’s one month survival rate across all 2023 sign-ups was 78%.

For Paramount+, Antenna observed that at the end of February 65% of the Super Bowl LVIII sign up cohort either remained subscribed to their paid subscription or had converted their free trial to paid. Antenna’s initial Paramount+ estimate does not include iTunes distribution, which Antenna estimates was 21% of the Paramount sign-ups.

For more detailed information on Antenna’s methodology and definitions of core metrics, visit http://www.antenna.live/methodology. 

NEW YORK—February TV viewing saw a record-setting Super Bowl Sunday on Feb. 11, which captured the largest Super Bowl audience in history, and further growth in streaming’s share of TV viewing, which climbed to a six month high. But those trends were not enough to overcome the typical seasonal downward trend in TV consumption, which saw overall viewing fall by 6.4% compared to January according to Nielsen’s The Gauge report for February 2024

While usage fell across each of the primary viewing categories in The Gauge, streaming exhibited minimal impact with a 1.9% decline that resulted in a 37.7% share of TV (+1.7 share pts.). Paramount+ saw the most monthly growth from a platform perspective (+24%, +0.2 share pt.) due in part to carrying a livestream of CBS' Super Bowl broadcast, as well as from the 1.2 billion viewing minutes captured by “Halo.” 

YouTube achieved a platform-best 9.3% share of TV usage (+0.7 share pt.), and FAST services exhibited exceptional strength with PlutoTV up 10%, Tubi up 8.3% and the Roku Channel up 8.1%, the report said. 

From a streaming content perspective, acquired titles attracted the most viewership in February, with “Young Sheldon” (Netflix, Max) topping the rankings with 4.6 billion viewing minutes, followed by “Bluey” (Disney+) with 4.5 billion and “Grey's Anatomy” (Netflix) with 3.5 billion. Netflix's “Griselda” represented the top streaming original title with 3.2 billion minutes, ranking fourth overall this month.

Broadcast viewing in February fell 10% vs. January and the category lost 0.9 share points to account for 23.3% of TV. On Super Bowl Sunday, however, the broadcast category made up over 43% of total TV usage, led by Super Bowl LVIII on CBS which generated nearly 30 billion viewing minutes alone. In addition to drawing over 17 million viewers for the Grammys, CBS also attracted solid audiences for new scripted programming including Tracker, NCIS, FBI and the final season of Young Sheldon.

TV viewing on Super Bowl Sunday was also the highest of any day since Nielsen launched the Gauge in May of 2021. 

Cable fell to record lows, exhibiting its smallest share of TV viewing to date with 27.6% of overall TV usage. Cable news viewing increased 7% as audiences tuned in to election year coverage, while sports viewing was down by about one-third. However, the sports genre still delivered the top programs for cable, with the 2024 NBA All-Star Game on TNT, TBS and TruTV taking the top slot, followed by NBA All-Star Saturday Night on TNT and TruTV.

Linear (live TV) streaming via MVPD and vMVPD apps represented 6.2% of total television usage in February. Linear streaming is included in the appropriate broadcast or cable category, and is not included in the streaming category.

NEW YORK—America’s biggest sporting event is once again raising big questions about the accuracy of audience measurement tools, with a new custom study from Nielsen that was commissioned by the National Football League estimating that Super Bowl XLVIII was watched by 210 million people, about two thirds of the population. 

Like last year’s custom study, that number is much higher than previously reported data on Super Bowl viewing, including data initially supplied by Nielsen itself. 

As previously reported, CBS Sports cited Nielsen data showing that its coverage of Super Bowl LVIII, which featured the Kansas City Chiefs’ 25-22 overtime victory over the San Francisco 49ers, delivered record viewing levels with a total audience delivery of 123.4 million average viewers across all platforms, including the CBS Television Network, Paramount+, Nickelodeon, Univision, and CBS Sports, Univision and NFL digital properties, including NFL+.

Prior to that, AdImpact reported that viewing for Super Bowl LVIII peaked at 115.5 million. And prior to that, Samba TV indicated that about 39 million U.S. households tuned into the big game, up 6% from the 2023 Super Bowl.

According to the new custom survey, Super Bowl LVIII on Feb. 11 reached approximately 210 million viewers – nearly 2/3 of Americans – across CBS Television Network, Paramount+, Nickelodeon, Univision, and CBS Sports, Univision and NFL digital properties, including NFL+. This is a 4% increase compared with the 202 million unique viewers reported in Nielsen's syndicated ratings service, which measures viewers that watched at least one minute of the game. The survey also revealed that the average minute audience was approximately 143 million viewers, the NFL and Nielsen reported. 

The newest data, which managed to find millions of viewers not captured in other reports, was based on a custom survey of 5,267 households that examined the size of viewing groups, regardless of location, and to what extent those groups are larger than that which is currently measured by Nielsen today. The survey was conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago using the AmeriSpeak panel.

“The Super Bowl is singular across the television and media landscape not only in its unparalleled viewership, but because it is largely watched in group settings," said Paul Ballew, chief data and analytics officer of the NFL. “With that in mind, additional measurement is needed in order to have a complete picture of the total viewership of this special event and the results of this custom survey with Nielsen illustrate the true magnitude of the Super Bowl."

All the different measurement reports did agree on one thing, however: Super Bowl LVXII was the most-watched Super Bowl of all time.

DENVER, Colo.—The annual Adtaxi Super Bowl Viewership survey highlights both the ongoing shift towards streaming media and the potential impact of Taylor Swift on the game’s audience. 

For Super Bowl LXVII, the Adtaxi survey found that audiences will rely heavily on digital services, with more than one third (36%) of those surveyed saying they plan to stream the big game, up from 30% in 2023 and 21% in 2019. For the 2024 game, 20.2% said they would watch it via broadcast TV, 16.1% on a cable TV offering and 10.2% on satellite TV. 

“It is not surprising that we continue to see the shift of viewers from traditional sources to streaming options,” said Adtaxi director of research, Murry Woronoff. “From 2023 to 2024, the streaming TV audience share is set to grow by 19%. That is compared to a 27% decline in viewership from year to year for broadcast and cable TV. This data points to a changing TV landscape where streaming services are capturing a larger segment of the traditional television audience. We anticipate this trend to continue for years to come.” 

The researchers also noted that the audience for streaming TV (36%) is projected to match the combined viewership figures of broadcast television (20%) and cable TV (16%) Additionally, 10% claim to use a streaming service as a secondary content platform. Overall, 45% of the adult Super Bowl audience incorporates streaming TV services into their overall game-day viewing experience.

The survey reveals evolving viewer interest in the Super Bowl, with 41% of participants expressing peak enthusiasm for the game itself, a modest rise from 38% in the previous year. Interest in the halftime show has seen a more significant increase with 34% of respondents indicating it as their highlight, up from 27% last year.

In terms of social media consumption, the study found that on average, adults consuming the Super Bowl engage with an additional 2.1 media platforms for related content. The survey found that 71% of the adult Super Bowl audience claims they will use additional media platforms beyond their primary consumption method. Among these platforms, social media has emerged as a top choice for users of streaming services. Further pointing to a decrease in reliance, broadcast and cable post high as a secondary source.

The survey also covered Taylor Swift’s impact on football, viewership and sales. Due to the singer-songwriter’s relationship with Kansas City Chiefs player Travis Kelce, 45% of respondents claim the courtship has had some level of impact on their interest in the football world. Furthermore, among participants who identify themselves as dedicated fans, the audience reporting an influence on their actions exceeded 70%. 

About 29% of those surveyed are more likely to follow professional football, including the Super Bowl, based on Swift’s impact. This figure doubles among her dedicated fans, highlighting a significant link between celebrity relationships and sports engagement.

About one in five (20%) of respondents, and nearly 50% of Swift’s fans, are spurred to engage with sports content due to the singer-player relationship. Again looking at dedicated fans, they are almost three times more inclined to buy sports merchandise and twice as likely to support football-related charities.

“These findings reveal that influencers have a particularly strong impact on individuals who are already invested in their content or the related niche. As marketers, it is more important than ever to be aware of top trends and capitalize on them in advertising,” said Chris Loretto, executive vice president of Adtaxi. “It is equally as important to note where and how people are consuming content, as streaming services and social platforms grow in popularity.” 

The full report and additional data can be accessed here.  

Despite a generally sluggish TV ad market, data from Guideline’s exclusive Forward Bookings service shows that the cost of a 30 second spot for the Super Bowl LVIII is on track to once again hit record levels.

The Guideline data for equivalized :30 second spots during the Super Bowl shows that those spots are currently commanding a $6.47 million paid unit rate, which is 11% higher than last year’s $5.83 million paid unit rate.

The company noted that the Guideline Pool reflects agency media buys across all six major U.S. agency holding companies and leading independent agencies and that the data skews towards major national brand advertisers.

It also stressed that the $6.47 million unit rate represents the collective perspective across all currently booked spots and that specific spots may fluctuate above or below that figure, including sponsors who are accessing legacy rates.

In addition, the researchers said that Super Bowl deal negotiations may also incorporate ancillary elements such as sponsorship integrations, bonus commercial inventory in other programming, etc. not reflected in the rate.

Other Guideline findings include:

• Currently, the Food sector holds the most equivalized :30s spots in the Super Bowl LVIII telecast, whereas Entertainment held that position last year.
• Four sectors are newly active vs. last year, according to Guideline’s Forward Bookings – namely Prescription Drugs, Personal Care, Toys & Games, and Media.
• While total ad spend for full market National Linear TV, across all programming, contracted -7% YoY amid the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, sports was a bright spot with +4% YoY growth. During that time, additional NFL (+15% YoY) and NBA (+17% YoY) investment offset absent 2022 Winter Olympics spend YoY. 
• The major subgenres driving the downturn were entertainment, which decreased -12% YoY, (-13% YoY), Reality (-12% YoY), and Comedy (-14% YoY). 

LAS VEGAS—Sphere Entertainment and the NFL this week said they will collaborate on creating custom Super Bowl LVIII content and displaying it on Sphere’s fully programmable Exosphere LED exterior this week.

Sphere also will be featured in CBS Sports’ coverage of Super Bowl LVIII on CBS and Paramount+ as part of the collaboration.

“We welcome Super Bowl LVIII to Las Vegas, which continues to reinforce its place as a destination for the biggest events in sports and entertainment,” said Joel Fisher, executive vice president, Marquee Events and Operations for MSG Entertainment, which oversees marquee events for Sphere. “As a new Las Vegas landmark, Sphere is recognized worldwide for its dynamic visuals, and we’re proud to collaborate with the NFL on content that will captivate audiences both in Las Vegas and watching on CBS.”

Super Bowl Week in Las Vegas officially kicks off today (Feb. 5), as does a slate of custom Exosphere content that will run throughout the week. Sphere will display content that includes:

• A countdown clock leading up to kick-off on Sunday
• A welcome visual that will serve as a beacon for the hundreds of thousands of people expected to descend on Las Vegas
• Key graphics highlighting the matchup between the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers.

In celebration of Super Bowl history, Sphere will showcase all 57 Super Bowl rings. Throughout the game, content on the Exosphere will run live in real time in response to action on the field, Sphere Entertainment said.

During the game, the CBS Sports' broadcast of Super Bowl LVII will showcase Sphere. Both the Exosphere and the interior of Sphere will be featured as part of two curated moments in custom, one-of-a-kind videos filmed at the venue that showcase the immersive capabilities of Sphere's 16K x 16K resolution interior display plane, it said.

The Exosphere consists of about 1.2 million LED pucks spaced eight inches apart. With 48 individual LED diodes apiece, each of which can display 256 million colors.

More information is available on the company’s website.

LOS ANGELES—As Pluto TV starts to celebrate its 10th anniversary in 2024, the streaming TV service has announced plans to air its first ever Super Bowl ad. 

The ad will air during Super Bowl LVIII, which will air on Paramount's CBS, the company's Paramount+ streaming services and other platforms. 

“At some point over the past decade, the world of television became undeniably crowded and complicated, making audiences yearn for simpler days. Super Bowl LVIII offers an ideal opportunity to connect with viewers seeking that easy and comforting essence of television, a return to TV the way it should be,” said Valerie Kaplan, global senior vice president, head of consumer marketing, Pluto TV. "We're excited to share our brand story with fans nationwide, using our authentic voice, irreverent sense of humor, and an unforgettable crop of couch potatoes who love TV as much as we, at Pluto, do."

The on-air ad will kick off a wider marketing campaign that will run across linear, CTV, radio, streaming audio, out-of-home, digital display and social media over the coming months.

“We are thrilled for Pluto TV’s Super Bowl close-up with a memorable, relatable and entertaining metaphor that leverages Pluto TV’s premium programming in an unexpected way,” said Terry Minogue, executive vice president of creative marketing, Paramount Streaming. “The Super Bowl is the biggest day of the year in advertising and we seized the opportunity by generating creative that is brand forward and easily accessible, just like Pluto TV."

On the ground, to bolster its first Big Game presence, Pluto TV will take residency with several sponsorships of on-site events in Las Vegas such as Guy Fieri’s Flavortown Tailgate and Gronk Beach. 

Shot by award-winning director Stacy Wall of Imperial Woodpecker Productions, the ad was created by LA-based independent creative agency HAYMAKER.

In launching the ad, Pluto TV said that the commercial is an ode to the great American pastime of TV-watching and that the brand new spot is centered around the essence of fandom and how viewer moods dictate the content they seek.

The spot takes viewers somewhere between Idaho and a dream, where lies Pluto TV Country, a place where the best couch potatoes in the world are raised on the finest content from Pluto TV – content that’s abundant, free and easy, the streamer explained. 

Each potato represents the fandoms that Pluto TV plays host to regularly, Pluto TV reported. 

In documentary style, rows of couch potatoes, watching Pluto TV, espouse emotions in confessional-style fashion, while feeding on an array of diverse programming and genres ranging from thrillers, dramas, reality, comedies, telenovelas and more. Beloved and popular IP featured in the spot includes The Walking Dead, Star Trek: The Next Generation, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Yellowstone, The Price is Right, Survivor, Blue Bloods, Love and Hip Hop Atlanta, CBS Mornings, SpongeBob SquarePants and other Pluto TV content. There’s even a cat potato watching Pluto TV’s Cats 24/7, the company said. 

LOS ANGELES—In the runup to Super Bowl LVIII on CBS, the free streaming service Pluto TV is launching a new pop-up channel, NFL Super Bowl Classics, that will feature past Super Bowl games and specials. 

The new 24/7 channel, which is exclusive to Pluto TV, joins the successful NFL Channel which launched on Pluto TV in 2019 featuring live game day coverage, NFL game replays, original shows, Emmy-Award winning series and more.

The channel will be available for a limited time from January 18 through February 21.

In addition to full game replays, the channel will feature NFL Films programming, docu-series and specials highlighting the rich legacy of America's favorite pastime. These include 'History of the Super Bowl' which takes a look back at how the Super Bowl was invented and its evolution to the biggest sporting event ever, and retrospectives from NFL Throwback on defining moments and players such as 'Greatest Super Bowl Finishes,' 'Ranking every Super Bowl MVP Performance,' and 'Craziest Super Bowl Plays of All Time', the company said. 

"Thanks to our incredible partners at the NFL, we have the opportunity to offer a window into NFL history and we know audiences will be thrilled, no matter what team they root for," said Amy Kuessner, executive vice president of programming for Pluto TV. "The addition of 'NFL Super Bowl Classics' channel to Pluto TV's lineup allows fans to discover and relive those unforgettable games and moments in one place- all for free."

Viewers can find the channel exclusively on the Pluto TV app or connected TV devices in the Sports category. All games will stream sequentially with specials and docuseries interspersed. For even more action, sports fans can also tune in year-round to Pluto TV's Sports category, which features sports news, football, baseball, soccer, golf, bull-riding, boxing and more.

CBS Sports will offer multiplatform coverage of Super Bowl LVIII from Las Vegas on Sunday, Feb. 11, featuring CBS Sports' presentation on CBS and Paramount+, and a slime-filled telecast exclusively on Nickelodeon. It will mark the first time that CBS has offered a 4K HDR feed of the Super Bowl. 

CBS and Pluto are both owned by Paramount. 

While Fox Sports and Nielsen have yet to release their data for viewing during the big game, newly released data from AdImpact is providing a moment-by-moment analysis of viewing trends at key points in the game. 

Their data suggests that Super Bowl LVII viewing peaked at 124 million near the end of the second quarter and that viewing levels ranged from 98.8 million at kickoff to 113.4 million at the end of the game. About 123.5 million people watched Rihanna’s Super Bowl Halftime Show. 

“An extraordinary marquee event to complete the 2023 NFL season, Super Bowl LVII between the KC Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles, and its Rhianna halftime entertainment show on Fox Network was truly an advertisers’ success,” said Rick McGuire, director of sales at AdImpact. “Viewership was 20% higher than last year’s Super Bowl, reaching over 123M viewers at the peak of halftime. Advertisers who participated in this year’s big game experienced consistent higher ratings as the two teams battled down to the final field goal of the game. The combination of a close game and a younger-skewed halftime show, made for the perfect combination to keep viewers interested right to the final seconds.”

In the first quarter, viewership spiked at kick-off as people tuned into the game for the first time, AdImpact reported. During the national anthem, around 6:30PM, viewership was at 77 million and by kickoff at 6:43PM, 98.8 million fans were watching. 

With the ball in play, 104 million people watched as the Eagles’ scored their first touchdown, AdImpact said. After the first touchdown, viewers were greeted with a star-studded Dunkin Donuts ad with Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez. 

Following the commercial break, the Chiefs quickly bounced back, scoring their first touchdown less than 10 minutes later with 107.8 million viewers watching. Viewership continued to grow, with 114.6 million tuning in by the end of the first quarter, AdImpact reported. 

In the second quarter, viewership continued to climb even higher as the Eagles’ and Chiefs’ both scored their second touchdown. The Eagles’ scored their third touchdown with 120 million viewers watching. The commercial break after the Eagles’ touchdown saw the return of the M&M candy mascots after the company sought to rebrand using Maya Rudolph as their mascot.

When the Chiefs’ regained possession, steadily more viewers tuned in by the time Chiefs’ quarterback Patrick Mahomes injured his ankle at 8:03PM, AdImpact reported.

Viewership peaked at the end of the second quarter at about 124 million viewers, shortly after the Eagles’ catch was challenged and overturned.  Although viewership slightly decreased by 1 million as the halftime game reviews were underway, 123.5 million people tuned in to watch Rihanna’s Super Bowl Halftime show. 

The researchers noted that, as the halftime performance winded down, viewership stood at 121 million to witness the start of the third quarter, with the Chiefs gaining possession. 

Viewership grew as the Chiefs began their comeback, peaking at 122 million views around 8:56PM, around the same time the Chiefs scored their third touchdown. After the third touchdown, FanDuel hosted their “Kick of Destiny” with Rob Gronkowski where fans could wager on the results. 

After the ad break, a key Eagles catch was challenged at 9:09PM with 121.5 million viewing. Heading back to the commercial, Pop Corners aired a Breaking Bad themed ad. By the end of the quarter, there were 120 million viewers still tuned into the game, the researchers said. 

In the fourth quarter, viewership slightly decreased to 119 million viewers but 120 million watched as they quickly scored their fourth touchdown. 

When cutting to the commercial, fans were greeted with a Workday ad featuring such rock stars as Ozzy Osborne. 

Following an Eagles’ touchdown and a 2-point conversion, the game was tied at 35-35 with viewership at 118.9 million. Viewership would remain steady until it dropped to 109M viewers at 10:04PM, around the 2-minute warning.

Following the 2-minute warning, the viewership picked back up to 115 million as the Chiefs had possession and were nearing the goal line to claim the lead with a minute and a half to spare. Viewership began to steadily decline at 10:10PM following a defensive holding call on the Eagles, allowing the Chiefs to run down the clock and seemingly close the door on the Eagles clinching the Lombardi trophy. 

Between the time the Chiefs kicked a field goal to set the game score at 38-35 at 10:12PM, and the Eagles’ last play at 10:14PM, viewership dropped by a million. 

At the end of the game, 113.6 million viewers were watching. 

Overall, viewership remained steady throughout the game, most likely due to a competitive and high scoring Super Bowl game, the researchers said. Immediately following the game, viewership immediately plummeted. By the time of the Lombardi trophy celebration, viewership stood at 75.9 million views.

ENGLEWOOD CLIFFS, N.J.—In the run-up to Fox Sports’ production of Super Bowl LVII, Fox Sports and LG Electronics have launched the Fox Sports app on LG Smart TVs1 including its LG OLED TVs and LG QNED TVs. The app can be accessed via LG's webOS Smart TV platform2.

The Fox Sports app offers live and on-demand streaming sports from Fox, FS1, FS2, and Fox Deportes all in one app. 

Every live Fox Sports game and studio show is available to pay TV subscribers, making NFL, MLB, NASCAR, College Football, College Basketball, FIFA World Cup, UEFA European Championships, CONCACAF Soccer, MLS, WWE, USFL, and Liga MX, as well as on-demand highlights available. 

The app is available on LG Smart TVs with webOS version 5.0 or higher for TV model years 2020-2022. Subscription fees for certain features in the MML app may be required.

To learn more about LG TVs, visit lg.com.

A new survey suggests that viewer attitudes towards what they want from the Super Bowl viewing experience and how they plan to watch the big game are shifting. 

As in earlier years, the largest group will be watching via a pay TV provider but cord cutting is cutting into that audience, with about 49% of Americans saying they planned to watch the game using their pay TV subscription, followed by streaming (22%) and over-the-air using an antenna (10%), according to Amdocs. 

Their survey of about 1,000 Americans also found that  81% of Americans who will be tuning into the game are interested in a more robust Super Bowl Sunday experience. 

Many of those who planned to watch the game expressed concerns about costs, with 44% stating cost is a factor when it comes to streaming. 

But many consumers (31%) were not aware they could watch the game and other sporting events aired by broadcasters for free via an antenna. About 46% said they were aware they could use an antenna but reported they don’t use one and 23% said they were aware and did use an antenna. 

Of the 31% who said they weren't aware that they could watch it via an antenna, 17% said they didn’t know about antennas and were interested in the idea; 14% said they didn’t know about antennas and weren’t interested. 

In 2022, Nielsen estimated that about 18.6 million homes were using antennas, or 15% of the U.S., a higher percentage than the 10% of respondents in this survey who said they planned to use an antenna to view the game over-the-air. 

The survey also found that consumers want new Super Bowl experiences beyond watching, with over half of viewers (58%) expressing interest in the metaverse to create a virtual stadium. AR/VR, a 360-degree live view of the game and increased interaction also generated interest.  

About 20% of viewers would be interested in augmented reality to make Rihanna’s half-time performance come to life 

Anthony Goonetilleke, group president of technology and head of strategy for Amdocs, explained that the findings underscore the need for network readiness to ensure all viewers have the same opportunities available during major cultural events. He added that the findings also indicated that more service providers will begin offering unique ‘experience packages’ that can be tailored to end-users, in order to compete in the new digital world. 

WATERLOO, Canada—The NFL isn’t the only one crowning a winner this weekend after the Super Bowl. SSIMWAVE will compare the video quality of over a half dozen broadcasters and streaming providers using its tech to reveal the winners and losers, SSIMWAVE, an IMAX company, said today.

SSIMWAVE will measure every second and every frame of the game presented by Fox in the United States and CTV and TSN in Canada as well as five streaming services. The company’s technology replicates the human visual system and checks for video impairments, latency and other issues that can affect the viewing experience, it said.

The company’s SSIMPLUS exceeds 90% in its correlation with how viewers would rate the quality of what they see on screen. It enables streaming providers to deliver optimal viewing experiences at the lowest possible cost, it said.

SSIMWAVE will generate a report card, ranging from 0 to 100, for each service. It will highlight:

• Fan viewing experience scores for the entire broadcast of the game.
• Maximum and minimum per-second viewer experience scores that show the variability of the video quality throughout the game.
• Measurement of latency or delay from live to the action on the screen.
• Video quality of the halftime show and ads.

The company also will take screen captures of key video issues, including technical impairments, such as interlacing, macroblocking and banding, and measure content at multiple geographic locations. SSIMWAVE will announce its results Monday, Feb. 13.

“While the same game production is used by most providers, what viewers see can vary widely because of the resources that each provider dedicates to video delivery,” said Abdul Rehman, CEO of SSIMWAVE. “Our experience in benchmarking streamed pro football games has been that video quality has averaged in the ‘good’ range of 60-79, although it can dip into the low 30s at specific moments during the games. Our hope is that every provider will ‘bring it’ on Sunday.”

Request the results from SSIMWAVE online. 

More information is available online.

NEW YORK—Fox Sports has announced it will be broadcasting all of its playoff games and Superbowl LVII in 4K, making it the first network to air all of its playoff games and the Super Bowl in 4K. 

The games will actually be shot in High Dynamic Range (HDR) at 1080p and upscaled for broadcast in 4K. 

Fox also said that it is the first network in 40 years to carry two Wild Card Round Games, Two NFC Divisional Round Games, the NFC Championship Game and Super Bowl.

Fox began its 4K broadcasts with the Super Wild Card Weekend opener between the Seattle Seahawks and San Francisco 49ers on Saturday, Jan. 14 and continued on Jan. 15 with the Vikings versus the Giants. 

Fox NFL Playoff games and the Super Bowl will be available in 4K through several Fox Sports distributors, including Altice Optimum, Comcast Xfinity, Cox Contour TV, DirecTV, Dish, FuboTV, Verizon FIOS and YouTube TV.

In addition to television availability, broadcasts of all Fox NFL postseason games can be streamed digitally on the Fox Sports app and NFL digital properties.

In accordance with the league’s scheduling policy, this year’s Fox NFL Playoffs schedule is subject to change, the network said. 

NEW YORK—In a custom survey designed to complement Nielsen’s measurement data, the National Football League and Nielsen found that a much larger number of people watched Super Bowl LVI than previously reported, with an estimated 208 million-plus viewers watching the game, approximately two-thirds of the entire population of the United States.

That figure is 25% more than the 167 million unique viewers who watched at least one minute of the game based on Nielsen's initial measurement.

Earlier this month, Nielsen reported that the telecast of Super Bowl LVI on NBC, Telemundo, Peacock, NBC Sports Digital, NFL Digital platforms and Yahoo Sports mobile properties averaged  112.3 million viewers to rank as the most-watched show in five years – since Super Bowl LI in February 2017 (113.7 million on Fox).

The new data, which looked further into viewing by people in group and out of home settings, highlight the unique viewing nature of the Super Bowl, which stands alone in the sports and entertainment landscape as an event that many watch in an out-of-home group setting such as a viewing party, bar, or restaurant, the NFL reported. 

Nielsen measures out-of-home in locations such as bars and restaurants across about 65% of the United States and its co-viewing measurement covers groups of up to 16 people in households across the entire country.  Nielsen found that nearly 90% of all people using a television during the event on Sunday, February 13, were watching the Super Bowl, the highest Super Bowl share on record (89.6%).

The custom survey of 6,600 households, conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago using the AmeriSpeak panel, examined the size of viewing groups at any location and to what extent those groups are larger than that which is measured today.

"While it's no secret that the Super Bowl is the biggest event across the media landscape on a yearly basis, the exact number of people watching the game has been challenging to pinpoint given the fact that people tend to gather in groups to watch the game" said Paul Ballew, chief data and analytics officer of the NFL. "We're grateful for the work put into this custom survey by Nielsen, the results of which we feel provide the most accurate picture to date of the total viewership for this unique event."

"While we are confident in our measurement which is the gold standard for the industry, we are always looking for ways to more strongly collaborate with our clients to better understand who may be watching, and how they may be watching," said Jon Stainer, Nielsen Sports managing director for the Americas. "We have worked closely with the NFL for years and performed other similar studies to better understand who may be tuning in to the largest TV event every year."

LOS ANGELES—NBC Sports’ coverage of  Super Bowl LVI averaged a total audience delivery of 112.3 million viewers on NBC, Telemundo, Peacock, NBC Sports Digital, NFL Digital platforms and Yahoo Sports mobile properties, reaching a total of 167 million viewers, in what NBCU is calling the most watched show in five years. 

About 101.1 million TV viewers watched the Super Bowl across NBC and Telemundo. Led by Peacock, Super Bowl LVI was the most-streamed NFL game ever, with an average minute audience of 11.2 Million viewers across all digital platforms. Telemundo also delivered the largest Spanish-language NFL game audience ever, NBCU reported. 

“The Super Bowl once again delivered a massive audience, which included NBC and the unmatched power of broadcast television as well as first-ever presentations on Peacock and Telemundo, and led into our most-watched Olympics coverage in four years,” said Mark Lazarus, chairman, NBCUniversal Television and Streaming.

Super Bowl LVI viewership on NBC peaked at 104.4 million from 7:45-8:00 p.m. ET.

The game (6:35-10:09 p.m. ET) averaged 99.2 million viewers on NBC – topping by 4% last year’s game (95.2 million for Chiefs-Buccaneers).

The Pepsi Super Bowl LVI Halftime Show on NBC, starring Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Mary J. Blige and Kendrick Lamar, along with special guest 50 Cent, averaged 103.4 million viewers from 8:15-8:30 p.m. ET – topping last year’s halftime show by 7% (96.7 million from 8:30-8:45 p.m. ET).

Telemundo on Sunday became the first-ever Spanish-language broadcast network to air the Super Bowl and averaged 1.9 million viewers – by far the most-watched NFL game in U.S. Spanish-language history. 

Data from other measurement companies also showed large audiences.  

iSpot.TV, a measurement company being used as an alternative to Nielsen by NBCUniversal, reported that an average minute audience of 121 million viewers tuned in to watch on NBC, Telemundo and Peacock, in homes and public venues across America.

About 56% of U.S. Households tuned into the telecast on NBC, Telemundo and Peacock, reaching a total audience of 149.9 million people who watched all or some of the broadcast, iSpot.TV said. 

The total linear average minute viewership was 98.1 million, including 2.9 million average minute viewers on Telemundo, which contributed to a total in-home reach of 134.5 million people on NBCU networks.

The average streaming minute audience was 10.5 million viewers and 15.5 million total viewers, which includes sensor-level streaming viewership data from CTV, mobile and tablet consumption provided in partnership with Conviva.

The iSpot.TV report found that 70.1% of those streaming the Super Bowl came from “cord cutters” or households without bundled pay TV service.

The total Out-of-Home (OOH) average audience for the Super Bowl was 12.5 million, as measured via iSpot’s partnership with Tunity Analytics.

Separately, Samba TV released U.S. linear television and streaming viewership data from Sunday night’s Super Bowl that showed this year’s championship game scored significant viewership increases from 2021, with 36 million U.S. households, representing more than 1 in 4 US homes, watching the Super Bowl this year. 

That was a significant audience uptick for the NFL, with Super Bowl LVI drawing in viewership from 12% more households than last year’s game, Samba TV reported. 

The Samba TV data also showed that the halftime show was a big audience draw this year smashing 2021’s viewership numbers. About 29 million U.S. households, an increase of 19% year-over-year, viewed the halftime performances. 

International data was not yet available but in Canada, Numeris reported that the Los Angeles Rams' hometown victory over the Cincinnati Bengals in Super Bowl LVI was the most-watched broadcast in Canada since last year's Super Bowl, attracting an average audience of 8.1 million viewers on CTV, TSN, and RDS, according to preliminary data from Numeris.

Overall, 16.9 million unique Canadian viewers, or 45% of Canada's population, tuned in to watch the NFL's championship game, meaning nearly 1 in 2 Canadians watched some or all of the broadcast. Audiences peaked at 11.4 million viewers at 8:21 p.m. ET during the celebratory Pepsi Super Bowl LVI Halftime Show, headlined by Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Mary J. Blige, Eminem, and Kendrick Lamar, with a special guest appearance by 50 Cent.

It was also Canada's most-watched broadcast of the 2021/22 broadcast season. The game ranked as the #1 program of the day, and CTV was the most-watched network in Canada on Sunday. 

Bell Media's CTV, TSN, and RDS are the official broadcasters of the NFL in Canada.

Bell Media also reported that extensive Super Bowl content drove engagement across TSN's social media platforms, garnering 5.5 million views, with 3 million of those views coming on TikTok.

CINCINNATI, Ohio—When the Los Angeles Rams and Cincinnati Bengals face off at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif. on February 13, a new survey from NCSolutions suggests many are looking forward to watching the game, but most will be watching from home. 

The NCSolutions (NCS) consumer sentiment survey found that 46% will watch the Super Bowl at home; 24% do not plan on watching the game; 16% say they will be attending a Super Bowl party at another home; 10% indicate they are hosting a Super Bowl party and 3% will be attending a Super Bowl party at a bar or restaurant. 

But if COVID worries might be keeping more people at home, consumers seemed generally comfortable with their finances. When asked “How will your spending on your anticipated food purchases for the Super Bowl compare to last year?,” 56% said they plan on spending the same as last year; 27% plan on spending more than last year; and only 17% planned to spend less than last year. 

While 55% said they were most interested in the game itself and 26% said they were most interested in the halftime show, about 19% said the commercials were their biggest interest.

“A few of the categories that you might see advertised during the Big Game have seen percent increases in their sales over the past year. Beer sales are up 4% year-over-year, candy sales are up 8%, salty snacks 5% and soft drinks 5%,” said Lance Brothers, chief revenue officer, NCSolutions. “With nearly 20% of Americans indicating they’re actually planning to tune into the Super Bowl just for the advertising, this creates a significant opportunity for consumer packaged goods (CPG) advertisers to reach eager consumers when they are open to and welcoming ads.”  

The survey also found that food shopping for the Super Bowl this year would be done at a grocery store (68% of respondents), at a wholesale club (12%) or a grocery app delivery service (8%). Only 10% said they were not doing any shopping for the Super Bowl.

The Super Bowl is America’s most-watched television event of the year, with interest in the game’s advertisements at a level to rival interest in what happens on the field. 

The more things change...
A lot has changed in the 55-year history of the NFL’s annual finale, but much has also stayed the same. Advertisers have always been willing to pay premium rates for commercials that air during the national broadcast. A 30-second in-game spot during the first Super Bowl in 1967 cost $40 thousand, while that same spot this year tops out at $7 million, $1.5 million more than in 2021.  

But how and where advertisers secure those spots has slowly evolved, with local ad buys and marketplace sales becoming increasingly important. 

Old Milwaukee marketers set the standard for leveraging a local Super Bowl ad buy to gain national traction. In the nation’s second-smallest TV market, North Platte, NE, Old Milwaukee ran an ad on two local stations during 2012’s Super Bowl. The ad featured actor Will Ferrell in a 30-second spot that was incredibly simple and inexpensive to produce. And it cost only $3,000 to air. The commercial’s post-game buzz surpassed nearly every other ad seen during that year’s game.

The following year, Pabst, Old Milwaukee’s parent company, continued the trend they set by buying local again for 2013’s game, employing the same combination of inexpensive, unconventional, and simple. Once again starring Ferrell, the minute-long ad aired in three of America’s smallest TV markets—Glendive, MT; Sherman, TX; and Ardmore, OK. 

Super Bowl XLIX in 2015 saw the delivery of the world’s first-ever programmatically transacted Super Bowl ad. The makers of Oreo cookies and Ritz Crackers bought local in-game inventory on WICU-TV in Erie, PA, airing two 15-second spots during the local station break at the end of half-time. The spots reached a regional audience of approximately 100,000 Super Bowl viewers and again generated national buzz.

More minor, regional advertisers have long recognized the effectiveness and affordability of buying local spots during the Super Bowl. Thanks to the success of Pabst and others, more and more national brands are leveraging local buys as well. 

In addition to in-game inventory, local stations in the home markets of the game’s two participating teams also produce pre-and post-game Super Bowl-related programming, including during the two weeks leading up to the game. This holds for local market affiliates whose parent company owns the broadcast rights – this year that’s NBC – but also for stations that won’t be broadcasting the Super Bowl, but that still saturate sports programming with home-team coverage. 

As a result, extremely attractive local ad inventory with larger-than-usual audiences is available to transact via TV marketplaces. Smaller, regional brands can realize huge benefits, but so can national brands, even those that have already purchased in-game Super Bowl spots with the network. 

They can build out more extensive campaigns by buying local spots that further extend their Super Bowl reach while leveraging more affordable pricing. This combination of versatility, convenience, and affordability is one of the reasons marketplace TV transactions keep growing, accounting for as much as $8 billion of the $60 billion TV ad market in 2021.

The more things stay the same
Super Bowl viewership has always been massive, steadily increasing from just over 40 million for the first Super Bowl back in 1967, to consistently averaging more than 100 million since 2010. Those numbers are extremely attractive, leading advertisers to compete financially for limited inventory, driving rates to record-breaking highs year after year. 

Those numbers also drive advertisers to compete creatively, hoping every year to produce that one ad that will capture the attention and imagination of viewers, turning the Super Bowl into the advertising showcase it has become. In 1977, that ad was Xerox’s 60-second spot, Monks, 

in 1984 it was Apple’s Macintosh commercial aptly titled 1984, and in 2010, it was Snickers’ iconic spot featuring Betty White and Abe Vigoda. And with a streak that spanned 37 years and featured Clydesdales, puppies, and frogs, almost everyone can instantly call to mind a favorite Budweiser Super Bowl commercial.

And that creativity attracts viewers—for many of whom the Super Bowl is the only football game they watch all year. That creates a unique opportunity for advertisers to reach massive audiences, spanning nearly all demographics and unmatched by any other annual television event. 

But the real winners are the local TV stations who can meet the demand for inventory the Super Bowl creates, during, pre-, and post-game, providing effective and affordable alternatives to million-dollar network buys. 

DENVER, Colo.—The digital marketing agency Adtaxi has released a new survey showing an accelerated shift towards streaming. It found that nearly half (49%) of consumers planned to stream the Superbowl and that two thirds (64%) of consumers choose streaming as their preferred method of content consumption. 

The Adtaxi annual “Consumer Streaming Trends and Super Bowl Viewership” survey also reported that one third (33%) of Americans plan to cancel their cable subscription in 2022. 

“It is no surprise that consumers are favoring the convenience of streaming services,” said Chris Loretto, executive vice president of Adtaxi. “The results of the survey underscore the importance of capitalizing on digital audiences and is a continuation of years-long consumer trends towards convenience, cost-efficiency, and personalization in media consumption.”

The survey shows that the percent of Americans still paying for cable services has fallen below 40%, down from over 50% just 3 years ago and that only 36% of cable subscribers are turning to cable first when they turn on the TV. 

The intention to cut the cord also seems to be accelerating, with 33% of Americans saying they plan to cancel their cable subscription in 2022, up from 31% in 2021 and 28% in 2020.  For those wanting to move away from cable, 22% claim they like the option of “binge watching” shows and 27% want to watch on their own schedule. 

“We can anticipate continued declines due to viewing preferences and cost, the multitude of streaming-capable devices over TV sets in the home, and increased competition directly from streaming services. Comcast alone lost 1.5 million TV subscribers in 2021,’ said Adtaxi director of research, Murry Woronoff. ”It is clear that cord-cutting will continue moving forward and we can expect it to continue at its current brisk pace in 2022.” 

In contrast the survey found high levels of engagement with streaming, with 92% of respondents stream some form of TV/Video content. The majority do so through either Connected TV (64%), followed by Smartphone/Mobile (54%) and/or Laptops (38%). 

In addition, nearly two-thirds (64%) of consumers make streaming their default setting – the first thing they check for content. One-third of TV streamers obtain 100% of their TV/Video content from such services and 77% of TV streamers get the majority (over 50%) of their content via streaming services.  

When it comes to viewing advertisements on streaming services, 33% of Americans believe the ads are more applicable to their personality and preferences. That beats cable (13%) and broadcast TV (10%) combined. 

When asked what streaming services consumers had used in the past 30 days, 71% had used Netflix, 63% used Amazon Prime, 53% used YouTube TV, 44% had used Hulu and Disney+, and 32% had used HBO Max. Out of all the services listed (30), the majority of respondents (38%) said Netflix was the outlet they use most often followed by YouTube (14%). 

This shift towards streaming was also highlighted in the survey’s findings regarding Super Bowl viewership. A slight majority of viewers (51%) plan to watch the Super Bowl on broadcast or cable TV, but digital will account for 49% of the total Super Bowl audience due largely to TV Streaming. 

The survey also found that the big game is a cross platform event, with 46% of Americans saying they will interact with various forms of digital media while watching the game. 31% state they will be using social media, 15% will be on a sporting website, and 8% will be using online forums. 

Similar to 2021, the majority of Americans will be skipping larger social gatherings. 43% of Americans plan to watch the Super Bowl either alone or with family at home, while 11% plan to throw a watch party, and an additional 11% plan to attend one. The survey also found that only 3% of consumers plan to watch the game from a bar or restaurant. In total, only 25% of Americans plan to watch the Super Bowl outside of their homes.

“With all eyes on Super Bowl LVI, these survey results offer insight into how marketers should maximize their reach. With nearly half of Americans (46%) utilizing digital media while watching the big game, it will be important for marketers to prioritize multiple platforms,” added Loretto. “The key to resonating on these social and streaming platforms will be a voice and strategy that is highly adaptable to changing circumstances and evolving preferences.”

This survey was conducted online using Survey Monkey among a national sample of 1,127 adults spanning across U.S. geographic regions, income levels, gender and age, with Super Bowl viewers represented by the 772 respondents who indicated they plan to consume the Super Bowl. The survey was conducted on January 14th, 2021.

CENTURY CITY, Calif.—Amid rising Coronavirus cases around the country, a new survey from AdColony finds that a majority of Americans (54%) won’t be hosting or attending the traditional Super Bowl party.

That, however, doesn’t seem to have dampened the interest in the big game at a time when playoff games have produced record ratings. The Saturday January 22 game on Fox between the San Francisco 49ers and the Green Bay Packers, for example, was the highest rated Saturday telecast since 1984 according to Fox Sports. . 

The AdColony survey found many people who are not avid football fans will watch the Super Bowl, with about 65% of the projected audience being made up of people who do not watch football games weekly, according to AdColony. 

That enthusiasm also will help make it a multiplatform event, with 59% of respondents planning to keep up with the game on multiple devices, a 16% increase from 2021. More than half (53%) of viewers will look to connected TV to provide stats/content from the big game and 36% will use a mobile device.

During the game, 47% of those surveyed said they plan to text, 43% said they will browse social media apps, 25% said they will use a device to order food delivery and 25% will play mobile games. 

Among the devices, however, the big screen TV remains king, with 68% planning to watch on broadcast TV, followed by a connected TV at 27%, and mobile devices at 10%. 

With advertisers spending big bucks to produce and air Super Bowl ads, 85% of viewers surveyed said they are interested in the ads aired during the big game.  

The survey also found that consumers say they are most interested in funny ads, with 84% saying they are looking for some comedy, followed by ads that are emotional/heartwarming (36%), have a celebrity cameo (29%) or something with a political/social message (12%), according to AdColony. 

The ads will also have an impact after the game, with more than half of consumers (51%) saying that they are likely to look up an ad that aired during the big game and watch it again; 69% saying they are likely to discuss the ads on their smartphone during and after the game; and 40% saying they are likely to purchase a product or service seen in an ad. 

AdColony is a digital turbine company. More information from the survey can be found here. 

LOS ANGELES, BEIJING and STAMFORD, Conn.—February is shaping up to be one for the record books for NBC Sports and NBC Olympics as the network will present both the Winter Olympic Games from Beijing and Super Bowl LVI from SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif.

“It’s going to be a challenge, but it’s going to be a wonderful challenge and an amazing opportunity for all of us,” said Pete Bevacqa, chairman of NBC Sports during a presentation streamed to the media Jan. 19.

From Bevacqa’s point of view, the advantages of producing both “far outweigh” the challenges. Offering advertisers the combined power of the Super Bowl and the Winter Olympics is “a great story,” he said. 

There will also be marketing advantages of producing both, giving the network’s talent the chance to cross promote the events. “And think about that Sunday [Feb. 13] when we’ll have great Olympic coverage prior to our pre-game show from 8 a.m. to noon," he said. "Then we’ll do everything as we would always do for a Super Bowl…. And then we’ll have that 100 million-plus audience from the Super Bowl, and we’ll segue right into great live Olympic coverage back in Beijing. To me that’s an unbelievably, really unparalleled never-before-seen, one-two punch.”

The NBC Sports facility in Stamford, Conn., will be the hub of coverage for both the Olympics and the Super Bowl. More than 1,000 people will work from the facility on production of the Beijing Games, he said.

Protecting those workers from the pandemic is a priority for NBC Sports, the broadcaster has gained valuable experience working in the COVID era that will serve as a guide during coverage of the Olympics and Super Bowl.

“We’ve gone through this. Rightly or wrongly, for good or for bad, we’ve been dealing with live sports during a pandemic for 18 months, including the Summer Olympics in Tokyo,” said Bevacqa. “This team is tested. This team is ready.”

A Home On Peacock
NBC will leverage a broad portfolio of platforms to present Super Bowl LVI and the Beijing Olympics. Coverage of the Super Bowl will be the 20th for NBC and the fifth as part of its Sunday Night Football package. The game also will be broadcast on Telemundo—the first time on a Spanish language network—and it will be simul-streamed on Peacock, also a first, said Bevacqa.

Peacock also will play the central role for NBC coverage of the Olympics offering viewers a home base to access live and on-demand coverage of individual sports, specific games and athletes. NBC’s experience with presenting the Tokyo Summer Olympics has helped guide the network in evolving the platform.

“I would be the first to admit that we realized that we had to make it easier for the viewer to navigate that, to digest the amount of Olympic content,” he said.

NBC has revamped Peacock’s Olympics navigation tools to make it easy for viewers to find Olympics content, regardless of whether they wish to view on NBC, USA Network or Peacock itself. “I think one of the great things about Peacock is that people will know that that is your safety net, your home for all things Olympics,” he added.

The short time separating coverage of the Summer Games in Tokyo and the Winter Games in Beijing gave NBC the opportunity to examine ways to respond to viewer use of Peacock and ways to improve the platform for coverage of the games, said Molly Solomon, president and executive producer at NBC Olympics Productions.

“We’ve really focused on making the thousands of hours we produce more intuitive—findable,” she said. “How can you make it easy for the viewer to find what they are looking for?”

NBC’s strategy involves three steps: eliminating confusion by making every event available on Peacock; enhancing the customization of the schedule on NBCOlympics.com so viewers can find what they want on the linear, digital and streaming platforms; and presenting more on-screen information with tickers during studio segments to remind viewers of what’s ahead, she said.

Besides Peacock, viewers have a range of platforms to access events. NBC will present daily afternoon coverage, live coverage in primetime and NBC Prime Plus across all time zones. USA Networks will be the primary cable home, offering 24/7 coverage; and CNBC will broadcast its post-market curling show. Live events will also stream on NBCOlympics.com and the network’s sports app.

Winter Olympics Coverage
Coverage of the games, which begins on Feb. 3—the night before the Opening Ceremony—with live coverage of team figure skating, will leverage the most production technology ever deployed at a Winter Olympics, said Solomon.

“These [figure] skaters, both on the men’s and women’s side, are continuing to elevate the sport with quadruple jumps,” she said. 

To capture the jumps and offer viewers a greater understanding, NBC Olympics is adding four Super Slow Mo cameras—one in each corner of the rink—bringing the total number of cameras covering figure skating to 22. “That’s really going to help the viewer better understand the rotations on these jumps that determine their scores,” she said. Coverage will also take advantage of StroMotion athlete tracking technology. 

(Read more: The TV Technology Behind the Beijing Winter Olympics)

For snowboarding, raw-motion data tracking will be deployed to reveal jump height in the halfpipe, and for coverage of alpine skiing NBC Olympics has added motion sensors to provide greater accuracy in the measurement of wind velocity and skier speed, she said.

The unusual thing about coverage of the Winter Games is the short time the network had between the Summer Games in Tokyo—delayed by a year due to the pandemic—and the start of the Beijing Olympics in February. 

Comparing the situation to running two marathons on successive days, Gary Zenkel, president of NBC Olympics said work on next month’s event began in Tokyo.

At the moment, about 250 NBC Olympics personnel are on the ground in Beijing—with more on their way. Many arrived in October and November 2021, which “put us in a really great position” as more arrived this month, he said, speaking from Beijing.

“We have a really sound technical infrastructure built inside the IBC [International Broadcast Center], and now that we are able to move to the venues, our preparations at the venues are underway,” he said.

Zenkel noted that although Beijing has put a closed loop in place—essentially a bubble that isolates Olympics stakeholders and participants from the outside world to guard against the pandemic—the restrictions have not prevented necessary preparations from proceeding.

Super Bowl 
NBC Sports will lead into its coverage of the Super Bowl with a Hollywood-themed pre-game show hosted by actress Halle Berry. The show will include movie clips of famous football movies, clips from previous Super Bowl games and cameo appearances by Hollywood actors and Super Bowl luminaries, said Fred Gaudelli, executive producer of Sunday Night Football and Super Bowl LVI.

For the game itself, NBC Sports will roll out a graphic look that reflects a Los Angeles flavor. The network’s new graphics package will include virtual elements and leverage unique features of SoFi Stadium.

“We’ll have a brand-new graphics package,” said Gaudelli, “a really cool virtual package.” For the first time, the network will use a Steadicam in combination with the SoFi Stadium’s Infinity Screen scoreboard suspended above the field to display some of its virtual graphics, he said.

When it comes to cameras, Gaudelli declined to say just how many will be used. “We will have added equipment obviously [compared to Sunday Night Football coverage],” he said. “I can’t even tell you the number of cameras right now, not because it is so enormous, but we feel like we shoot a Super Bowl every Sunday night.”

However, Gaudelli will deploy more cameras on the goal lines, more to shoot down the sidelines and additional cameras to shoot down the end lines. “So, the cameras we add for this are really to capture situations,” he said. 

“[The added cameras are] more to make sure that there are no unanswered questions. We have all the critical looks, and that’s how we approach the game from the camera standpoint,” said Gaudelli.

“So, we’ll have a nice bag of toys,” he continued. “There’s no question about it. But as you know and I know, it really comes down to how you cover critical moments of the game,” he said. “And while I want to make the game feel like a spectacle, and we will, I’m more concerned about how we are going to cover those critical moments of the game.”

NEW YORK—ABC would be back in the lineup of Super Bowl broadcasters if a new media rights deal between the NFL and The Walt Disney Company is agreed to, according to reports.

Sports Business Journal reports that the NFL and Disney have reached a broad agreement for a new rights deal, which would keep “Monday Night Football” on ESPN and have ABC once again broadcast the Super Bowl, something the network has not done since 2006. While a deal is not done, SBJ cites sources that one is “very close at hand.”

The terms of the deal would see Disney pay around $2.6 billion for the right to broadcast "MNF" games and use NFL highlights for in-house studio shows. That equates to about a 30% increase from the current deal Disney has with the league. The NFL said SBJ’s report was incorrect and ESPN declined to comment.

The broadcast deals for CBS, Fox and NBC are also being redone ahead of their expiration in 2022, but all Sunday games are expected to remain as they have been in recent years with these networks. While CBS, Fox and NBC will see increases in their rights fees, SBJ says that Disney still will pay more for its package.

For more information, read SBJ’s full story.