The first-ever webcast of the Super Bowl pulled in more than two million users -- about 2% of the traditional TV viewing on the NBC network.
Total online numbers came to 2,105,441 users, according to data from Omniture and mDialog. NBC said the Super Bowl webcast became the most-watched, single game sports event ever.
In the fall, NBC's "Sunday Night Football" had been pulling in around 200,000 to 300,000 digital viewers for its webcasts per game. In total, NBC says the online Super Bowl XLVI event pulled in 78 million minutes that were streamed.
Kevin Monaghan, senior vp of business development and managing director, digital media of the NBC Sports Group, said in a release: “The record traffic that grew throughout the event, as well as the record high engagement numbers, underscores the complementary aspect of digital as an enhancement to our exceptional television coverage.”
Media executives say NBC was charging advertisers a $55 cost-per-thousand viewers (CPMs), which would be a unit price of $115,775 for a 30-second commercial exposure. One story suggested NBC had a difficult time in selling the event to advertisers. But another report stated that an NBC executive said the event was sold out. One major sponsor online was General Motors' Chevrolet brand.
The live game stream was available on NBCSports.com, NFL.com, and available on NFL Mobile from Verizon.
Unit value appraisal should be based on avg simultaneous usage vs total program viewership. While numbers are very impressive, the $115K appraisal for the spot is somewhat overstated.