The biggest draw in television is going mobile.
The Super Bowl will be streamed online and to phones for the first time, the NFL said Tuesday. NBC’s broadcasts of wild card Saturday, the Pro Bowl and the Super Bowl will be available on the league’s and network’s websites in the U.S. and through Verizon’s NFL Mobile app in the United States.
The service will include additional camera angles, in-game highlights and live stats–and replays of those always popular Super Bowl ads.
NBC has been streaming its Sunday Night Football telecasts for four seasons, and is being view by more than just fans who can’t get in front of a set. Many of the page views come from people using the service as a complement to watching the game on TV.
That certainly would seem likely for the Super Bowl on Feb. 5 from Indianapolis. The game is annually by far the biggest attraction on television, with last season’s Packers-Steelers matchup drawing a record U.S. audience for any show with 111 million viewers. In Canada, more than 6.5 million watched the game on CTV.
“Whether it’s just for a quarter if somebody has to run out to the store to get something they forgot, now they can stay connected to the game,” said Hans Schroeder, the NFL‘s senior vice-president of media strategy and development. “With such a big television audience, it will be interesting to see the expanded reach.”
NBC’s streams on Sunday nights typically average 200,000-300,000 viewers, compared with 21 million for the telecasts. The network has seen no evidence it hurts the traditional broadcasts’ healthy TV ratings. If anything, the extra options online may help keep fans glued to the games on their sets.
“We don’t want to limit ourselves to people not in front of the TV,” said Rick Cordella, vice-president and general manager for NBC Sports Digital Media.
“The playoffs are appointment viewing,” he added. “People schedule their day around it.”
The NFL and NBC will do extensive research to find out exactly how many people are watching the streams and how they’re using them.
Would you watch a sports event online and on TV at the same time?
