NBC has almost sold out of TV ad spots for Super Bowl 2022

"The 2021 NFL season hasn’t even begun yet, and NBC is almost finished with its ad sales for Super Bowl 56—more than five months before the game will take place.

“As of today, we only have a few units left, and we’re purposely holding them back,” Dan Lovinger, evp, advertising sales, NBC Sports Group, told reporters this afternoon during a press briefing. The pregame show is also “extremely well sold,” he added.

Lovinger said the company has sold its most recent Super Bowl units for as much as $6.5 million per 30-second spot, and secured a matching investment across “other high-profile NBCU properties,” including the Winter Olympics, which will also be in February, at the same time as Super Bowl 56 on Feb. 13."

Source:  AdWeek, 8th September 2021

The median age of golf fans is 64, EPL is 43, and eSports is 25

"The median age of golf fans is 64, for English Premier League football it is 43 and for eSports it’s 25. Fortnite skews even younger, for both fans and participants: the average age of the players on stage is 16."

Source:  Data quoted by the FT, 3rd August 2019

8.3m people in the UK watched England win the Cricket World Cup

"Sky and Channel 4’s shared FTA coverage of the Cricket World Cup final on July 14th – which saw England beat New Zealand in the competition’s first ever ‘super over’ – drew a combined TV audience of 8.3 million.
Sky’s Chief Executive UK and Ireland Stephen van Rooyen said: “Congratulations to England and everyone who has been part of the journey at the ECB. The ICC put on a terrific tournament. We’ve been proud host broadcasters of a home cricket World Cup, dedicating a channel and showing every single minute, which has been absorbing from the first ball to the unforgettable final delivery. Sunday saw a peak across Sky and Channel 4 of 8.3 million – a huge audience for a huge moment for British sport. On Sky’s channels our peak was 3.5 million alone, a fitting way to cap a terrific tournament.”"
Source:  Advanced Television, 15th July 2019

18.6m people in India watched an IPL game live on Hotstar

"Indian video streaming giant Hotstar, owned by Disney, today set a new global benchmark for the number of people an OTT service can draw to a live event.
Some 18.6 million users simultaneously tuned into Hotstar’s website and app to watch the deciding game of the 12th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket tournament. The streaming giant, which competes with Netflix  and Amazon in India, broke its own “global best” 10.3 million concurrent views milestone that it set last year."

Source:  Techcrunch, 12th May 2019

The WWE Channel has 40m subscribers on YouTube

"WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) has hit 40 million subscribers to its official YouTube channel, and exceeded 30 billion overall views, as they continue to expand and grow on the video streaming platform.
The WWE Youtube channel is ranked 7th (as of end of Jan 2019) on the channels with the most subscribers, above the likes of music artists Ed Sheeran and Eminem."

Source:  Advanced Television, 28th February 2019

The Super Bowl caused Netflix viewing to drop by 30%

"Super Bowl 53, which saw the New England Patriots defeat the LA Rams in a poorly received contest, had a profound effect on Netflix usage on Sunday evening – with data surprisingly being released by Netflix themselves.
During the game, Netflix posted on its Twitter account: “So apparently this Super Bowl thing is kind of a big deal … looks like Netflix viewing in the US is down about 32% compared to a normal Sunday.”"

Source:  Advanced Television, 4th February 2019

Original Tweet here

World Cup Stats - TV viewing, live streaming and more

The World Cup set streaming records early on - Conviva, 19th June 2018

World Cup viewing boost for the BBC - Advanced TV, 2nd July 2018

24m watched England win the penalty shoot-out against Colombia - Advanced TV, 4th July 2018

The total streams from the group stage were larger than the streams for the full tournament in 2014 - Advanced TV, 5th July 2018

England fans watching on both TV and mobile - EE, 6th July 2018

England vs Sweden set the BBC's live streaming record (3.8m) - Advanced TV, 9th July 2018

26.5m watched England Vs Croatia on TV (not including pubs etc) - Advanced TV, 12th July 2018

App downloads grew 15%, driven by the World Cup - App Annie, 23rd July 2018

The World Cup increased loyalty for gambling companies - Advanced TV, 9th August 2018

There were over 40,000 links to illegal streams over the course of the tournament - Advanced TV, 7th September 2018

Musical.ly users generated more than 10m Winter Olympics interactions in first weekend

"Musical.ly, the lip-synching video app with 60 million users, generated more than 10 million engagements during the first weekend of the Winter Olympics with broadcasts from social influencers Nia Sioux (@niasioux) and Ross Smith (@rosssmith) and the NBC Olympics channel (@nbcolympics), according to a news release. Muscial.ly partnered with NBC Sports Group to provide new ways for fans to experience the games, which opened last week in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
NBC Olympics is feeding content daily to Musical.ly users, such as event highlights, behind-the-scenes footage and GIFs. Musical.ly is also urging users to engage in the Olympics experience using two in-app hashtag challenges created with NBC and U.S. athletes such as skier Mikaela Shiffrin, figure skater Nathan Chen and snowboarder Chloe Kim."
Source:  Mobile Marketer, 16th February 2018

A fan's live FA Cup video on Periscope had 139,000 viewers

"The Premier League have said they will take action against any fans broadcasting football matches on streaming websites via smartphones.
It is a new problem that is creeping into the game with fans inside stadiums filming the action on their phones and broadcasting it live on websites like the Twitter-owned Periscope platform.
One Manchester City fan who went to Selhurst Park on Saturday to watch his side's FA Cup clash with Crystal Palace decided to film and broadcast the entire match and pulled in an incredible 139,300 viewers."

Source:  Mail Online, 3rd February 2017

19m unique browsers visited BBC Sport on 'Super Sunday' during Rio 2016

"BBC Sport cemented its position as the number one digital destination for sport as record numbers accessed digital services. This week has been the biggest ever week for BBC Sport online with 58.2m global unique browsers following the action from the Rio Olympics, the return of the Premier League and England’s Test match v Pakistan from around the world.
The new seven-day record for BBC Sport digital traffic smashes the previous record of 41.4m set during the first week of Euro 2016. Of the 58.2m unique browsers, 40.3m came from the UK, setting another personal best for the BBC.
And like many of the Olympians competing in Rio, BBC Sport beat its own record for daily traffic which stood at 14.6m unique browsers from the day England faced Wales at Euro 2016, five times since the start of the Games. It now stands at 19m for Super Sunday as fans followed Team GB’s historic medal haul.
Mobile
Audiences have been glued to the action on their mobile devices throughout the Games and the BBC Sport mobile app had its biggest ever week with 4.4m unique browsers. Sunday was a record day for mobile audiences overall too, with 2.7m browsers in the app contributing to 8.4m unique browsers overall, beating the previous record of 6.3m.
Personal
The opening week of the Games has also seen people personalise the BBC Sport digital service more than ever before, a record 347k unique browsers visited the ‘My Sport’ area of the website, with over 500k topics followed.
Online Video
An enormous 81.2m have accessed video clips, catch-up services and watched live streams across BBC Sport and BBC iPlayer since the start of the Games, with audiences using the digital service to watch both live and on-demand.
Team GB’s success has also led to a record week for the BBC Sport app on Connected TV with 1.74m browsers and an all-time high of 1.67m using the BBC’s Red Button+ service."
Source:  BBC Media Centre, 15th August 2016

2.3m in the UK watched a live stream of the ENG vs. WAL game at Euro 2016

"BBC Online attracted record breaking digital figures for the home nations Euro 2016 clash between England and Wales on June 16th with 2.3 million unique browsers watching online, more than double the previous record, while a peak audience of 9.3 million million people (73 per cent share) tuned in on BBC One.
An all-time high audience of 14.6 million unique global browsers visited the BBC Sport website on the day to follow coverage of Euro 2016, including Northern Ireland’s match against Ukraine. This breaks the previous record of 13.6 million browsers set on the final day of the 2015-16 Premier League season."
Source:  Advanced Television, 17th June 2016

A third of US Pizza Hut orders during the Super Bowl were made on mobile [+ other stats]

""Pizza Hut enjoyed record-breaking sales on the day of the Super Bowl, with orders coming from mobile devices representing approximately one-third of total sales, underscoring consumer demand for on-the-go food purchases during major sporting events.
The quick service restaurant chain reaped the rewards of the growing shift toward mobile ordering during Sunday’s big game, with smartphone-enabled sales accounting for one-third of total sales. Pizza Hut’s single-day digital sales record bodes well for its competitors, especially if food and beverage brands are wise enough to market to consumers during significant cultural or sporting events that typically involve plenty of get-togethers."

Source:  Mobile Commerce Daily, 10th February 2016

Other Super Bowl 2016 stats:

82% of Super Bowl searches happened on mobile

Flurry looks at app usage during the game - (lowest when Beyonce performs as people put down their phones)

2nd highest overnight ratings for CBS

Big drop in number of tweets and Facebook engagements - boring game?

BT has 1.2m TV customers in the UK

"In reporting its Q1 results, BT has revealed that it added 60,000 TV customers in the quarter, bringing its total to 1.2 million.
BT Sport average daily audience figures increased 51 per cent, which the telco said was its best performance since launch, reflecting the improvements it had made to the BT TV offering."

Source:  Advanced Television, 30th July 2015

13.3m people in the US watched the Women's World Cup Final

"The Women’s World Cup final which saw USA defeat Japan in an eventful 5-2 clash drew in a record 13.3 million viewers on ABC.
Featuring a hat-trick from US star Carli Lloyd, the figure was close to doubling the 8.6 million viewers drawn into the previous final in 2011 which aired on ESPN, showing a growing interest in the sport in the states.
On the ad front, Fox, which broadcasted 37 matches from the 52-game tournament, generated an impressive $26.8m in ad sales, AdAge quotes from iSpot.tv figures.
Nationwide, Fiat, Visa, Ford, Bud Light. Audi and Nike were among the biggest advertisers of the Women’s World Cup on Fox."

Source:  The Drum, 7th July 2015

Pacquiao vs. Mayweather on Facebook & Twitter

Facebook - 37m people made 115m interactions
Twitter - 1.8m people, 5.86m Tweets

The 2015 Super Bowl achieved the highest ever US TV audience

"In updated national estimates from Nielsen released Monday afternoon, Sunday’s Super Bowl on NBC set a U.S. television record with 114.4 million viewers — up 2.2 million from the previous high set last year with Seattle and Denver. The six most recent Super Bowl games now claim the top six sports on this list.
Viewership peaked with 120.8 million viewers from 9:45-10 p.m. ET when Super Bowl MVP Tom Brady three two touchdown passes to put the Patriots on top.
The Super Bowl halftime show fronted by Katy Perry was also the highest on record (118.5 million viewers), about 3 million more than last year’s Bruno Mars concert on Fox.
NBC Sports Live Extra’s live stream of Super Bowl XLIX to desktops and tablets set Super Bowl records for average viewers per minute (800,000), concurrent users (1.3 million) and total minutes (213 million), according to Adobe Analytics.
Following post-game coverage, a special episode of “The Blacklist” earned series-high ratings (8.7 in 18-49, 26.5 million viewers overall). These are the best numbers for any entertainment telecast since last year’s Academy Awards on ABC, and this is the most-watched scripted telecast on NBC since the night of the “Friends” finale in May 2004.
This is the best delivery in both 18-49 and total viewers for a post-Super Bowl entertainment program since “The Voice” on NBC three years ago (16.3 rating in 18-49, 37.61 million viewers overall). The most recent drama to air after the game, CBS’ “Elementary” in 2013, averaged a 7.8 demo rating and 20.80 million total viewers."
Source:  Variety, 2nd February 2015

The three most talked about Super Bowl advertisers on Twitter were McDonalds, Always and Budweiser

"From the coin toss to the post-game wrap up, #SB49 saw advertisers bring their creative firepower to Twitter as they looked to drive conversations during yesterday’s thrilling game between the @Patriots and the @Seahawks.
For the last three years, we ran #AdScrimmage to celebrate the in-game commercial that garnered the most votes via Tweets. This year, in order to better reflect the true nature of the brand conversations on Twitter, we broadened the definition of “vote” to include brand, commercial and other related mentions, starting from the coin toss to when the clock hits 0:00 (the live window). This more accurately reflects which advertiser saw the most conversation on Twitter. We’re calling the victor this year’s #TopSpot.
We’re excited to announce that McDonalds (@McDonalds) is the winner of this inaugural #TopSpot competition, gathering 634,310 mentions during the live window of the game.
Always (@Always), with 455,695 mentions and Budweiser (@Budweiser) with 371,900 mentions during the live window, rounded out the top three most-talked-about brands on Twitter during the game.
[...]
Measurement of the #TopSpot included mentions of the brand and/or the commercial. Organic conversation that counts toward this measurement consists of the number of original Tweets mentioning a brand advertising spot in a variety of forms, including:
mentions of brand name
brand Twitter account
product name
hashtag included in commercial
subject matter of commercial
mentions of celebrities appearing in commercial"

Source:  Twitter's Advertising Blog, 2nd February 2015

65m Facebook users posted 265m posts, comments and likes relating to Super bowl 2015

"Facebook joined in on the action, with the Super Bowl XLIX being discussed by 65 million people, generating 265 million posts, comments and likes, according to Catalyst, a PR and research agency. 2014's Super Bowl game only saw 50 million join in on the debate via Facebook.
The Patriots' victory was the most-talked about topic on Facebook, with 1.36 million people commenting every minute, followed by Katy Perry's "Firework" finale (1.02 million people per minute); according to Facebook's data team."

Source:  CNBC, 2nd February 2-15

50% of the TV ads during Super Bowl 2015 had hashtags

"Fifty percent of 2015 Super Bowl ads carried hashtags, a bit of a slip from the record 57% during the 2014 game. Facebook was the social network most mentioned, though mentions of specific social networks were again very sparse.
The numbers are from our fourth annual Hashtag Bowl count of social media mentions during the Super Bowl. We only counted ads shown nationally, and only ads from after the kick-off until the game was over.
Promos for shows on NBC, which carried the Super Bowl, were not included. Our scoreboard at the top of this article has the final count, but here’s the summary with percentages, based on a total of 56 national ads reviewed.
The Count & Facebook’s Second Win
Hashtags: 28 total, 50% of ads overall
Facebook: 4 total, 7.1% of ads overall
Twitter: 3 total, 5.3% of ads overall
Snapchat: 1 total, 1.8% of ads overall
URLs: 25 total, 44.6% of ads overall
For the second year running, Facebook edged past Twitter to be the most mentioned social network"

Source:  Marketingland, 1st February 2015
Earlier - 57% in 2014

There were 28.4m tweets about Super Bowl sent during the live TV screening

"All night, the conversation around #SB49 dominated Twitter. Over 28.4 million global Tweets containing terms related to the game and halftime show were sent during the live telecast (from kickoff through 30 minutes after the clock expired). #SB49 was the most Tweeted @SuperBowl ever, surpassing last year’s game."

Source:  Twitter Blog, 2nd February 2015

Earlier - 24.9m in 2014