Time for a sports media notebook. Plenty of stuff out there and I need to clear my browser tabs of all the links I have for you.
First some news.
NEWS
As you’re aware by now, Super Bowl XLIX was declared the most-watched television program in U.S. history with an average of 114.4 million viewers. The NFL has some more information to pass along about SB XLIX before moving onto Super Bowl 50 in San Francisco in 2016.
MOST-WATCHED EVER: RECORD 114.4 MILLION FANS WATCH SUPER BOWL XLIX ON NBC
21 MILLION VISITS TO NFL DIGITAL PROPERTIES
SOCIAL SUPER BOWL: MORE THAN 265 MILLION POSTS, COMMENTS & LIKES ON FACEBOOK AROUND SUPER BOWL; 28.4 MILLION GLOBAL TWEETS DURING THE GAMEThe 2014 NFL season concluded with another television milestone as Super Bowl XLIX on NBC was watched by an average of 114.4 million viewers, making it the most-watched telecast in television history.
Most-Watched TV Programs, Average Viewers
Game Average Viewers Super Bowl XLIX (Patriots-Seahawks), 2/1/15 114.4 million Super Bowl XLVIII (Seahawks-Broncos), 2/2/14 112.2 million Super Bowl XLVI (Giants-Patriots), 2/5/12 111.3 million Super Bowl XLV (Packers-Steelers), 2/6/11 111.0 million Super Bowl XLVII (49ers-Ravens), 2/3/13 108.7 million Source: NFL, The Nielsen Company
Viewership peaked at 120.8 million viewers from 9:45-10:00 PM ET during the fourth quarter.
The Patriots-Seahawks championship game was viewed by 161.3 million total viewers, marking the seventh consecutive Super Bowl to reach a total audience of more than 150 million viewers. Super Bowls account for the 24 most-viewed programs in history in terms of total audience.
Overall, traffic to NFL digital properties on Sunday set all-time records for a Super Bowl. Highlights include:
- NFL digital properties saw more than 21 million visits on Sunday.
- Nearly four million people watched live streaming video of Super Bowl XLIX on digital platforms between NBC Sports Live Extra (2.5 mm viewers) and NFL Mobile from Verizon (1.2 mm viewers).
- The 1.2 million viewers on NFL Mobile on Verizon are up 224% from Super Bowl XLVIII.
- Overall, NFL Mobile on Verizon visitors jumped to 3.3 million on Super Bowl Sunday and have tripled since 2012.
Facebook & Twitter
- As Facebook has noted, Sunday’s game was the most-talked-about Super Bowl on Facebook ever. More than 65 million people – up from 50 million in 2014 – joined in the conversation around Super Bowl XLIX with 265 million posts, comments and likes.
- Twitter reported that more than 28.4 million global Tweets containing terms related to the game and halftime show were sent during the live telecast (from kickoff through 30 minutes after the clock expired). #SB49 was the most Tweeted @SuperBowl ever, surpassing last year’s game.
LINKAGE
Sports Illustrated’s Richard Deitsch talks with Super Bowl XLIX on NBC producer Fred Gaudelli about the final moments of the game and provides his grades for the production.
John Ourand at Sports Business Daily tells us that CBS has already set a price for Super Bowl 50 ads and has sold a few spots.
Timothy Burke of Deadspin notes that a local anti-heroin Super Bowl ad in St. Louis struck a strange tone.
Ken Kerschbaumer of Sports Video Group looks at NFL Films’ new distribution system that no longer requires the company to use film and go digital for the Super Bowl.
Ken tells us about the NFL’s assembly of the Super Bowl world feed.
Mike Reynolds at Multichannel News writes that Super Bowl XLIX set a streaming record for the Big Game.
R. Thomas Umstead of Multichannel reports that ESPN and the Longhorn Network will offer specials commemorating Black History Month.
Thomas writes that HBO is still continuing negotiations‘ to get a Manny Pacquaio-Floyd Mayweather pay-per-view fight to come to reality.
Jonathan Kuperberg of Broadcasting & Cable says Kitten Bowl II scored for Hallmark Channel on Super Bowl Sunday.
Ina Fried of re/code has an interesting story that the CEO’s of Sprint and T-Mobile had it out on Twitter after the Super Bowl.
Newsday’s Neil Best has his review of Super Bowl XLIX.
Ken Schott of the Schenectady Gazette writes that a local radio station has re-upped to carry the Boston Red Sox.
Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union has the Yankees on YES Spring Training schedule.
The Indianapolis Colts have announced that radio voice Bob Lamey is returning for his 29th season in 2015.
In the Chicago Tribune, Ed Sherman wonders how Super Bowl XLIX could rate better in Chicago than Super Bowl XLI which had the Bears.
Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News says Cris Collinsworth harped on the play call that led to the Patriots’ unfortunate win on Sunday.
At Sports Media Watch, Paulsen notes the Australian Open finals were a mixed bag for ESPN.
And we’ll close up the notebook for today.
