Super Bowl Media

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NBC to Stream Super Bowl Online

Network will also stream Wild Card Saturday doubleheader and Pro Bowl

By John Eggerton & Jon Lafayette, Broadcasting & Cable

The 2012 Super Bowl will be streamed online and on select mobile phones for the first time ever.

Billing the online offering as NBC Postseason Extra, it will launch Jan. 7 with NBC's Wild Card Saturday doubleheader. followed by the Pro Bowl Jan. 29 from Hawaii, and Super Bowl XLVI Feb. 5 live from Indianapolis. The games will be streamed on both NBCSports.com and NFL.com. as well as Verizon mobile phones.

The stream will come from NBC's coverage, with additional camera angles, highlights and stats to add to the interactive experience.

Will online streaming of the big game and playoffs become standard operating procedure? "We'll see how this year goes," said an NFL source on background.

If it does become the norm, the move to put playoff games online not only opens up the game to the increasingly mobile, increasingly broadband-centric audience, it could also remove one of the historic trump cards in some retransmission consent disputes: the biggest ticket sports broadcast.

At least for the affiliates of the network carrying each year's NFL playoffs and Super Bowl, the possibility of losing access to those games has been one of the talking points in Washington, where legislators have argued that retrans blackouts threaten programming for which there is no substitute, like the big football games, college and pro.

But with online access, most of the cable viewers affected by those blackouts would have an online option.

The streaming version of the Super Bowl will carry a different set of commercials from the Super Bowl broadcast, where NBC is nearly sold out at prices above $3 million for 30 seconds.

NBC is in the process of selling those spots. No word yet on pricing. NBC is also looking to sell ads in its other NFL online properies including NBC Postseason Extra.

While streaming the game could take some viewers away from the commercials on broadcast, among the options NBC will be offering users of computers and mobile devices is a channel showing the Super Bowl commercials with full DVR functionality, which means viewers away from home during the game can still catch the ads -- usually one of the most talked about features of Super Sunday.

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Supersized bowl

Big game moving beyond the tube to the Web

By CLAIRE ATKINSON, NY Post

The Super Bowl, which draws the biggest American TV audience, is about to get bigger with World Wide Web coverage.

For the first time ever, the Super Bowl will be available to football fans watching it online, on tablets or on mobile phones.

NFL, NBC and Verizon Wireless have agreed to supersize the big game — a change that will make it virtually impossible to escape football’s biggest matchup, set for Feb. 5 in Indianapolis.

Super Bowl XLVI isn’t the only post-season game to get the streaming treatment. The NFL Pro Bowl and NBC’s Wild-Card Saturday doubleheader games will also be available in the same way.

Viewers will be able to visit NBCSports.com to get the games online or on tablets such as the iPad, while phone users will have access via the NFL Mobile app offered only by Verizon Wireless.

For those who own Verizon 3G phones, there will be a $10 charge to access the Super Bowl via Verizon Video, the service that includes the NFL app, while 4G phone owners will get it for free.

Last year’s game, won by the Green Bay Packers, attracted a record 111 million viewers, making it the biggest US TV show in history.

In the past, the league and its network partners have had to crack down on rogue sites that attempt to stream the game online without permission.

NBC doesn’t think a streamed Super Bowl will cannibalize viewership, even though TV ratings giant Nielsen doesn’t count ratings on alternative devices yet.

The company is hoping to enhance the experience by giving viewers the chance to rewind plays, watch from different angles and repeat commercials.

“Our extensive Sunday Night Football and Olympic research shows that live streaming does not cannibalize the television audience,” an NBC spokesman said. “People default to the best screen available. In fact, our research shows an enhanced two-screen viewing experience leaves consumers more engaged.”

The digital blowout could deliver a new revenue stream for NBC and give marketers who don’t have the stomach for a $3.5 million 30-second ad spot on TV the opportunity to put their ads into the digital coverage.

NBC has been streaming “Sunday Night Football” since 2008, and says it gets 200,000 to 300,000 streams for each “Sunday Night” game.

Pepsi and VW are among those signed up as Super Bowl TV advertisers.

The new initiative also suggests NBC has big plans to shake up Olympic coverage, offering hope to those who want to see more of their favorite sports live from London in 2012.

NBC got a new sports honcho, Mark Lazarus, in May. He took over from longtime chief Dick Ebersol, who had favored prime-time packages that were not live but drew advertisers. Lazarus has said that every Olympic event will be broadcast live on at least one platform from London, though the network hasn’t provided specifics.

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NFL, NBC Sports to Live Stream the Super Bowl

Getty ImagesThe big game as well as the Pro Bowl and NBC's broadcast of Wild Card playoffs will be available on NFL and NBC sites.

By Marisa Guthrie, THR

NEW YORK – For the first time in 46 years, the Super Bowl will be officially live streamed. The NFL will make the big game, as well as this season's Pro Bowl and NBC’s broadcasts of Wild Card playoff games, available on the NFL and NBC web sites through Verizon’s NFL Mobile app.

NBC and the league already live stream NBC’s Sunday Night Football. And CBS Sports has been live streaming the NCAA’s March Madness (with a “boss button”) for several years.

Still, it is an unprecedented step for the biggest television event in the country that has drawn in excess of 100 million viewers for the last two years.

Each year, the NFL and the broadcast network that has the rights to the Super Bowl fend off rogue sites that attempt to live stream it. Last year, the government seized the web addresses of nearly a dozen sites that promised to live stream the game.

The move is a sign of a tipping point in viewing habits, as more consumers watch television on mobile devices including the iPad. But it also underscores the philosophical change at NBC Sports, which in recent years has been the target of criticism from diehard sports fans for tape delaying events, especially the Olympics.

After the departure of longtime NBC Sports & Olympics chief Dick Ebersol last May, new NBC Sports chairman Mark Lazarus promised much more live streaming and has said that every event of the upcoming Summer Olympic Games in London will be live on one platform or another.

The NFL Mobile app will offer additional camera angels as well as live stats. The 2012 Super Bowl is Feb. 5 from Indianapolis.

NBC, CBS and Fox last week finalized lucrative new contracts with the NFL for close to $1 billion each and that include additional digital rights.

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Super Bowl to stream online

Wild card games, Pro Bowl also go digital

By Andrew Wallenstein, Variety

The Super Bowl will be streamed live on digital platforms in the U.S. for the first time, NBC announced Tuesday.

The Feb. 5 game would be accessible online for free in high definition via websites for the NFL and NBC, which is televising the event, as well as on wireless devices courtesy of the league's Verizon mobile app.

The wild card games on Jan. 7 and Pro Bowl Jan. 29 will also be streamed.

The NFL has already put its Sunday night games on NBC online as well, complete with additional features such as extra camera angles, social interactivity and DVR-like controls.

Those features will be available for the streamed post-season games, too, but still utilize the same play-by-play team on air.

While the online stream will have a separate set of commercials, the heavily hyped ads featured on TV will also be accessible on the digital side.

Putting the big game online should help curtail piracy, a problem that has long dogged the NFL. Last year, the domains of multiple websites notorious for carrying illegal feeds of live sporting events were seized by the Department of Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement just days before the Super Bowl.

Streaming could cut both ways in terms of the sky-high TV ratings for Super Bowl, which reached record levels in February. While putting the Super Bowl online could add eyeballs that otherwise aren't in front of TVs at the time of the game, there's a possibility that some viewers could be lured away from their sets, though that's unlikely given few would opt away from a bigger-screen experience given a choice.

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In New-Media First, Super Bowl to Be Streamed Online

Big Game to Be Available on NBC.com and Verizon Phones

By Brian Steinberg, AdAge

The next Super Bowl will be streamed online by NBC Universal, adding a new-media dimension to one of the oldest but most viable big-TV properties on the prime-time schedule.

The National Football League made the announcement Tuesday, according to the Associated Press.

Under current plans, all postseason games broadcast by NBC, including a wild card Saturday game, the Pro Bowl and the Super Bowl, will be streamed via NBC's website and Verizon's NFL Mobile application. Online viewers will be able to access additional camera angles and live statistics.

In recent years NBC began online streaming of its "Sunday Night Football" telecasts.

The Super Bowl has broken viewing records for the last three years. CBS's telecast of the Super Bowl in 2010 trumped the famous series finale of "M*A*S*H" to become the most-watched event ever on broadcast TV. This year's broadcast on Fox beat that record, topping 111 million viewers. The online-streaming component of the 2012 game could add more viewership, though whether advertisers would consider that segment as valuable as TV viewership remains in question.

An NBC Sports spokesman was not able to respond immediately to a query about advertising sold via the streaming of the game.

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For the First Time, TV's Biggest Live Event Will Be Streamed to Your Phone

By John Paul Titlow, ReadWriteWeb

When it comes to watching television without the aid of a cable subscription or rabbit ears, the Web is pretty accommodating these days. Most popular shows stream new episodes within 24 hours and even many live television events can be streamed online. One of the biggest deal killers for would-be "cord cutters," however has always been live sports. If you're a huge football fan, for example, there's no way around it: you need TV the old fashioned way.

That's still largely the case, but watching the year's biggest sporting event via the Internet just got a whole lot easier. The Super Bowl, which is the most-watched television broadcast in the United States, will be streamed live to computers and smartphones, the NFL announced today.

NBC and the NFL will both stream a high-definition quality broadcast of the game online with alternative camera angles, DVR-style controls and other interactive features.

In addition to being accessible on the desktop Web, the stream will be available via Verizon's NFL Mobile app, which is available on both iOS and Android.

It's not the first sporting event to be streamed live, but its certainly the biggest. If the networks ever wanted an opportunity to give large-scale live streaming a test run, this would be a pretty good one.

The Super Bowl attracts over 100 million viewers, most of whom will have no problem sitting around the television set per usual to watch the game. If anything, making it available online will expand the audience and may even offer the networks some interesting viewership statistics and a few takeaways about the future of television.

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NFL Will Stream Superbowl For First Time

By Jeff Roberts, paidContent

This year’s Superbowl is in Indianapolis and it’s a sure thing the hometown Colts will not be playing. But, luckily for the Colts and the rest of us, the big game can now be seen online and on certain mobile devices.

The National Football League announced today that it is expanding its online offerings to include for the first time the Superbowl, the ProBowl and NBC’s Wild Card Saturday doubleheader.

One intriguing twist in the announcement is that, although the online stream will be available everywhere in the US, only Verizon subscribers will be able to watch it on their mobile phones through a special app.

Marketers will no doubt be watching closely to see how consumers react to new platforms for America’s biggest advertising event. While it’s unlikely that viewers will give up ritual Superbowl parties and bar gatherings to stream the game on their own, the streams will likely represent a second screen in many living rooms.

The NFL also announced that the streams will include features to “enrich the viewing experience” such as special camera angles, stats, highlights and interactive features.

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Livestream the Super Bowl, Kick Off Disruption of Broadcast TV

Tim Carmody, Wired

In February, Super Bowl XLVI will be the first instance of the biggest game of the year to stream live over the web, via NFL.com and NBCSports.com. The game will also be available to stream on Verizon smartphones through the league’s wireless partner’s NFL Mobile app. (If you’re on another wireless carrier, you’re out of luck; Verizon’s got the exclusive.)

It also may signal the beginning of the next stage in the web’s transformation of television. Forget TiVo, iTunes, Hulu and BitTorrent. Now even live events aren’t safely confined to the boob tube. And where better to begin than with the biggest television event of the year?

It’s definitely a first for the NFL. The league’s experimented with live and mobile streaming of regular-season games, but has never before opened up live video of postseason games beyond broadcast TV. NBC, Verizon and NFL.com will also stream the Saturday wild-card playoff games and the Pro Bowl. The rest of the playoffs are carried by CBS and FOX, who aren’t part of this agreement; their games remain broadcast-only.

The NFL’s other two networks may want to catch up. NBC has been streaming Sunday night football games since 2008, averaging 200,000-300,000 viewers per game, against around 21 million through the telecasts. (Note: 111 million viewers tuned in to last year’s Super Bowl, the most in television history). There’s a huge overlap between the web and broadcast audiences, as viewers bounce back and forth between different screens throughout the house, or use the computer in front of the television to review stats, replays or highlights.

“This is the next step in how viewers consume their programming,” writes Joel Thorman, NFL Editor at sports site SB Nation. “I wouldn’t be surprised if the rest of the networks followed suit in the following years.”

Last week, when the NFL announced renewed multimillion dollar broadcast deals with NBC, CBS and FOX, league commissioner Roger Goodell promised more digital innovation from the NFL and its TV partners. “The networks will continue their outstanding coverage of the NFL,” Goodell said, “while also helping to deliver more football to more fans using the best and most current technology.”

“We don’t want to limit ourselves to people not in front of the TV,” NBC Sports VP Rick Cordella said in a story for NBCSports.com. “The playoffs are appointment viewing,” Cordella added. “People schedule their day around it.”

If NBC’s Super Bowl experiment is a success, what other tentpole events could benefit from the same treatment? Besides other sports staples like the World Series, Wimbledon or the World Cup, you could also imagine popular interactive events like the American Idol finale or must-see award shows like the Oscars migrating to viewers’ iPads.

Remember two years ago, when ABC and Cablevision’s brinkmanship in a dispute over broadcast fees nearly kept the Oscars off the air for millions of New York-area cable customers? That entire dispute could have changed completely if ABC had simulcast the awards show online.

There’s one major drawback of streaming television to computers or mobile phones, besides throttled or unreliable connections: big events benefit from big screens. Yes, you can watch the Super Bowl on your smartphone — but if you had a choice, who would really want to?

“I’m not sure about the significance of viewing live games on mobile phones,” SB Nation’s Thorman told Wired via email. “That said, this is another sign of an undeniable shift to mobile in how we consume our news, particularly sports news.”

Still, not being near a TV — or racing to get to one in time — could become a worry of the past.

Sports on mobile, in other words, still isn’t primarily an experience, but a kind of news, similar to the information we gobble up on our phones all day. And the NFL isn’t yet offering anything comparable to what NCAA football has done to support watching multiple games on big screens via a service like ESPN3 for Xbox.

We can imagine a future of television where any episode, event, season or channel could be purchased a la carte through any digital box. At the moment, though, it’s still primarily a second-screen experience, controlled by the networks and other intermediaries, that augments broadcast television instead of replacing it.

That’s still better field position than viewers had just a few years ago. And this game’s just getting started.

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Super Bowl To Be Streamed Live On Web, Mobile

By David Goetzl, Mediapost

In the final affirmation that online streaming has changed TV forever -- a process that arguably started when ABC made hits available on iTunes in late 2005 -- the Super Bowl will be available live and free on two Web sites in February. NBC’s coverage of the big game will be simulcast on NBCSports.com and NFL.com and the ads will be different.

NBC would not provide any information -- about number of spots, etc. -- for the stream, except to say the spots will be different. This carries some risk for advertisers paying $3 million for 30 seconds on TV if there is significant consumption online, although that’s unlikely. NBC and the NFL surely are banking on online viewing to be additive.

NBC, which has been simulcasting “Sunday Night Football” for several years online, will also stream two Wild Card playoff games and the Pro Bowl.

The games will also be available on the NFL’s mobile service to some Verizon customers. This marks the first time that post-season games will be available in the U.S. via live online streaming and a mobile app.

Like the Sunday night games, the online coverage offers added camera angles. In-game highlights will also be available along with other interactive opportunities.

Rick Cordella of NBC Sports Digital Media stated: “By adding multiple camera angles, HD-quality video, DVR controls along with social interactivity, our online streaming represents a compelling, second-screen experience that nicely complements NBC's on-air presentation.”