CBSSports.com said it drew 3 million viewers to its live stream of Super Bowl XLVII, 43% above the 2.1 million NBCSports.com had for last year's Super Bowl and a new U.S. single-game record for the most watched live sports stream. Super Bowl XLVII also generated 114.4 million total minutes of streaming, up 46% from a year ago. CBSSports.com Senior VP & GM Jason Kint said, "We were definitely thinking and planning for growth, but it was hard to know going in exactly what to expect. But this is obviously a very gratifying result, and one that supports our aim to have the live stream be additive to the TV broadcast." Traffic patterns for the live stream roughly mirrored the broadcast, with online audiences peaking at the end of the game as the 49ers attempted their comeback. As expected, the live All-22 coaches' angle was the most popular of the four alternate views beyond the repurposed TV feed, both quantitatively in audience size and qualitatively with regard to social media buzz. But Kint said the fan's choice angle, which changed several times in game based on viewer sentiment, could be particularly applicable to future streaming efforts in other sports. Kint added, "That quickly became such a powerful element of storytelling. For example, as the 49ers fell behind, there was a push to show (backup 49ers QB) Alex Smith. So we did, and you immediately saw on social media the buzz that generated. The product was able to add to the narrative of the game. So that was very exciting." Super Bowl XLVII during the day on Sunday also generated 52.5 million comments on social media according to BlueFin Labs, Social Guide and Trendrr, far and away the most social event in television history (Eric Fisher, Staff Writer).
DELAY OF GAME: In DC, Lisa De Moraes notes Nielsen has “broken out Sunday’s 34-minute game shutdown in New Orleans as a separate show and given it the name ‘Super Bowl XLVII Delay.’” Those 107 million viewers who “sat through a whole lot of nothing and ad breaks is a bigger crowd than watched the Super Bowl in 2009 and all Super Bowls before that.” It is “nearly 70 million more people than watched last year’s Grammy Awards.” Toyota sponsored CBS’ Super Bowl postgame coverage and "snagged an average of 63 million viewers Sunday” (WASHINGTON POST, 2/6). In N.Y., David Hinckley noted there “isn't much doubt that the third quarter power outage produced the most-watched dead air ever” (N.Y. DAILY NEWS, 2/5).
