Next year, it will be much easier to stream -- and watch on a big screen with the aid of PicoP.
More than 1.3 million people watched the Super Bowl through NBC's web stream, instead of traditional television, at the pivotal moment when the Patriots' Malcolm Butler intercepted a pass intended for the Seahawks' Ricardo Lockette.
That stat -- released by NBC shortly after the game -- can be read one of two ways.
One: streaming continues to take over by converting new fans. 1.3 million is the highest-ever number of concurrent streaming viewers for a Super Bowl.
Two: television distribution continues to reign supreme. If people can watch the game on a big screen through a cable or satellite provider, they generally will. Streaming is a back-up.
Both assessments are true.
More and more people are streaming all sorts of programming, including live sporting events. And that phenomenon is sure to continue in the years to come; if next year's Super Bowl broadcaster, CBS, decides to make the game available on the Internet, it'll probably break this year's streaming record.
Last year Fox's live stream of the game peaked at around 1.1 million viewers. Fox said that stream averaged 528,000 average viewers, meaning the number that were watching, on average, every minute of the game.
An NBC Sports spokesman said the average streaming viewership number is not yet available.
Even with a peak of 1.3 million simultaneous viewers, the online streams account for barely 1/100th of all Super Bowl viewing in the United States. Many observers expect the TV ratings for Sunday's game to surpass last year's record highs, when 112.2 million tuned in at home, according to Nielsen....
...The biggest disappointment, she said, was that "some of the commercials were blacked out."
NBC said there were no major hiccups with its live stream -- no small feat, given the high stakes of a Super Bowl.
There were no widespread complaints about Verizon's app that streamed the game to its wireless customers, either. (No viewership data for Verizon is available.)
Of course, some people couldn't be home to watch the traditional way, and streaming was a handy alternative. Time of day is a crucial factor for web viewership -- some World Cup matches that took place during the workday in the United States peaked at well over 1.3 million simultaneous viewers last summer. The USA-Germany match on June 26 had 1.7 million viewers on the web.
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