NBC Sports last night delivered a clean, straightforward online stream of Super Bowl XLIX, the fourth time the game has been available digitally and the second time for NBC. Very similar to last year’s Super Bowl stream from Fox, NBC was contractually precluded by the NFL from offering alternate camera angles. But each year typically one of the most watched live sports streaming events ever to that date, the Super Bowl feed last night appeared to stand up to traffic demands without any major technical issues. The online game feed lagged behind TV coverage by about 45 seconds, slightly longer than most other digital simulcasts of televised sports. NBC, also like Fox last year, dropped its typical user-authentication requirements for its Super Bowl streaming. The net sold advertising time to 19 companies in a separate batch of inventory from the TV feed, and did not as aggressively tout its own programming in the digital stream as much as Fox did last year. NBC also set up a separate Tumblr page at NBCSports.com/Ads to showcase all the televised spots.
Early audience numbers pointed to NBC getting a peak of 1.3 million concurrent viewers of the stream late in the game, 18% higher than last year’s highwater mark and a new Super Bowl mark. The figure, however, still trails the 1.7 million peak concurrent viewers ESPN generated for the U.S.-Germany FIFA World Cup match last June that stands as a sports-industry record.
ADVERTISER BREAKDOWN FOR LIVE STREAM
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FIRST QUARTER
|
Chevrolet |
Nissan |
Kia |
Geico |
Universal Pictures' "Jurassic World" |
Avacados from Mexico |
T-Mobile |
Mercedes-Benz |
Mini Cooper |
|
SECOND QUARTER
|
NFL |
Avocados from Mexico |
Mini Cooper |
NBC's "Today" |
T-Mobile |
Chevrolet |
Geico |
Universal Pictures' "Furious 7" |
Pizza Hut |
Lexus |
Coca-Cola |
Toyota |
Microsoft |
Nissan |
Nissan |
|
HALFTIME
|
BMW |
Microsoft |
T-Mobile |
Universal Pictures' "Jurassic World" |
NFL |
Geico |
Mini Cooper |
|
THIRD QUARTER
|
Kia |
Lexus |
Microsoft |
Pizza Hut |
T-Mobile |
Geico |
Nissan |
Honda |
Coca-Cola |
Avocados from Mexico |
NFL |
|
FOURTH QUARTER
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Mercedes-Benz |
Mini Cooper |
Universal Pictures' "Ted 2" |
Universal Pictures' "Seventh Son" |
T-Mobile |
Kia |
Microsoft |
Toyota |
Geico |
Avocados from Mexico |
Jeep |
|
POSTGAME
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Nissan |
T-Mobile |
Microsoft |
Kia |
Pizza Hut |
Avocados from Mexico |
NFL |
NBC's "Allegiance" |
Lexus |
|
|
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TALK AMONGST YOURSELVES: Twitter last night said 28.4 million tweets related to the Super Bowl were sent, up from 24.9 million for last year’s game, and once again the most-tweeted-about Super Bowl ever. Not surprisingly, the game-sealing interception by Patriots CB Malcolm Butler was the most-tweeted about individual moment of the game, with a peak of 395,000 tweets per minute.