
Super Bowl Delivers Thrills, but No Ratings Record - JumpCrisscross
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/06/business/media/super-bowl-ratings.html?em_pos=small&emc=edit_dk_20170206&nl=dealbook&nl_art=6&nlid=65508833&ref=headline&te=1&_r=0
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XaspR8d
Anecdotally, I feel football is gradually losing ground among younger
generations. My sports-watching-est friends seem to be less and less devoted
to football in particular and more interested in other, more niche sports.
Even those strongly allegiant to football are less insistent on catching many
individual games real-time as they are staying informed about the league
overall and watching highlights or stream or DVR when they can.

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k-mcgrady
Interested to know the niche sports you're finding people showing interest in.

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seppin
soccer. no ads except for half time

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felipemnoa
I guess you consider it niche in the USA but soccer is the most popular game
world wide[1].

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Association_football](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Association_football)

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gozur88
It's definitely niche in the US.

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groby_b
As long as you define "US" as "white, male, >25".

It's popular with women. It's popular with kids (age 12-17, more popular than
MLB). It's popular with the latino population.

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gozur88
Not really. They can't get people to watch it on TV, which is why it doesn't
make any money.

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JBlue42
[https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/11/sports/soccer/nbc-
retains...](https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/11/sports/soccer/nbc-retains-
rights-to-premier-league-in-six-year-deal.html)

Two years of success broadcasting England’s Premier League proved a basic
truth to NBC Sports: It would have to pay a lot more to keep carrying the
league’s games.

Now it will. Under a six-year agreement announced Monday that starts next
season and is worth about $1 billion, NBC retained the rights to the Premier
League through the 2021-22 season.

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Steko
I watched online and the stream was excellent although it lacked commercials
which would normally would be a plus but not for the superbowl (anyway I got a
roundup of them elsewhere).

Just shows you how broken online advertising is when they don't even play the
very best video commercials on offer to 2+ million people watching their
stream.

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ams6110
I think Super Bowl commercials have jumped the shark. They used to be a fun
interlude during timeouts. Now they are just over the top "who can cram the
most CGI into 30 seconds of the most impossibly contrived scenario"

Maybe I'm just old. I didn't watch the commercials though.

I did think the halftime show was good. I appreciated the lack of overt
political statements.

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TeMPOraL
> _Now they are just over the top "who can cram the most CGI into 30 seconds
> of the most impossibly contrived scenario"_

Isn't this a good thing though? They're like an art scene now. Fun for the
viewers, (I'd guess) fun for the people making them. Just probably not good
ROI for the advertisers, which I'd judge as a positive development.

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k-mcgrady
>> high enough to tie it for fourth place among the most-viewed programs in TV
history

So still huge ratings and only down 600k on last year, which isn't bad when
there's over 110m viewers.

Secondly although it was a pretty thrilling final quarter and OT at the half
it looked like it was all over so I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of people
turned off (as it was nearly 2am for me I nearly did).

Finally, these are only ratings for Fox - I'd be interested to know how it did
globally.

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forgotmysn
is the superbowl broadcast globally? I can't imagine it has a huge audience
outside the US

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k-mcgrady
As at-fates-hands showed it is. In the UK it's on the BBC from about 10mins
before the coin toss. We get US commentary but during your ad breaks it cuts
to our presenter/pundit team which includes Osi Umenyiora. We also have a
weekly NFL roundup show on the BBC and Sky (paid TV) shows live games during
the season.

There's also Game Pass where you pay something like £150 a year to stream all
games live (although they blackout the ones shown on Sky) and on demand which
also gives condensed and highlights version of the games.

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st3v3r
Wow, so you guys had to suffer through Joe Buck too?

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xoqem
There were numerous legal ways to stream the Super Bowl online and on mobile
this year for free, it appears these numbers may not include those? I would be
curious to see what percentage of viewers used an app or site to view the game
this year, and if it makes up for the relatively small drop in TV viewers.

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losteverything
I bought my milennial-border kids a box each in the pool. I texted them the
pic

They said "we don't have cable" I totally forgot about that. They had NO PLANS
to watch any way.

They will watch a replay if Gaga on their commute.

How times they are a changin'

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mig39
How do the ratings compare to the Champions League final?

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k-mcgrady
180m in 2015 [1]

[1] [http://heavy.com/sports/2016/05/champions-league-final-tv-
ra...](http://heavy.com/sports/2016/05/champions-league-final-tv-ratings-
expected-viewers-audience-super-bowl/)

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ashwinaj
I have no data, but I find it hard to believe such measly numbers. The
viewership in Asia itself would be upwards of 200 million (India, China, SE
Asia, Middle East where football/soccer is popular).

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k-mcgrady
Those numbers are actually originally sourced from UEFA so I would expect them
to be accurate. I know the World Cup Final has hugely larger ratings figures
but Champions League being a European tournament maybe it isn't very popular
outside Europe.

