• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, February 2, 2015

Even with a poor TV market, and against the backdrop of concussion issues, and a rash of off-field questionable/illegal activity, this weekend’s Super Bowl still pulled in over $315 million in ad revenue for NBC.

Now the NFL wants more. For some time now, the league has been considering more regular season games and possibly an additional round of playoffs. The NFL’s Player’s union may have something to say about this.

Perhaps an easier decision to fuel more revenue: the streaming of regular season games, though analysts have worried about this move cannibalizing viewing. Still, starting three years ago, the NFL started live-streaming of its biggest event, the Super Bowl, which has had no visible damage to traditional TV viewership, which in fact has hit new historic levels.

Now that this test has worked out well in the favor of NFL, the league wants to run the first regular season streaming game, to be carried on the local broadcast stations of the teams involved in that game.

And like those executives touting stand-alone digital services for HBO, Showtime, CBS, Dish, and Viacom, the NFL claims a potential live streaming service would target millions who do not have a traditional TV service.

All that should help ease any problems with TV stations and other traditional TV venues that worry about viewer cannibalization.

But the NFL Commissioner in particular isn’t taking anything for granted. “We will continue to develop new platforms,” said Roger Goodell. “How our fans, especially our younger ones, connect with the game is changing everyday.”

NFL can be thankful outside parties know football is still a big deal. On the Friday before the big game, the average price for each of some 256 tickets soared to $9,000, according to StubHub, an online entertainment/sports ticket company,

If the Super Bowl has told us anything, it’s that big entertainment and sports events have growing value that seemingly has no ceiling. 

And a surprising last-moment twist of a game where Seattle, at the one yard line, with 20 seconds to go, shockingly loses?  That means even more value. You could almost forget what happened over the last five months. Almost.