Super Bowl Facts; Neilsen
Among the key findings from Nielsen:
* TELEVISION: As usual, the 2007 Super Bowl was the highest rated TV show in the U.S. for the year attracting more than 93 million TV viewers.
* ONLINE: Super Bowl 2007 advertisers saw a collective 50% increase in Web traffic the day after the big game, from 8.5 million unique visitors on Super Bowl Sunday to 12.7 million unique visitors on Monday. Budweiser brands generated the most online buzz.
* THE ADVERTISERS: The cost for a 30-second commercial during the 2007 game was $2.38 million down from $2.5 million in 2006. Total spending for the 2007 game reached over $161.8 million. In 2007, Anheuser-Busch aired the most commercial time, while Cadillac had the most sponsorship air-time.
* MUSIC: Halftime and pre-game performances have provided sales growth for music artists since the early '90s. After last year's Super Bowl halftime, Billboard reported that Prince’s album sales more than doubled.
* BOX OFFICE AND DVD SALES: Box Office sales continue to be lower on Super Bowl Sunday vs. typical Sundays in the winter months. The top selling Super Bowl-related DVD since 2000 is SUPER BOWL XXXVIII, featuring the Patriots and the Panthers.
* SHOPPING TRENDS: During the Super Bowl period, snack food had the largest incremental increase in total sales and alcoholic beverage coolers had the largest percentage increase.
* DEMOGRAPHICS OF FOOTBALL FANS: People in wealthy homes, which generally have more than a $100,000 income, are almost three times more likely to watch the Super Bowl as people in homes with less than $30,000 in annual income. NY Giants fans are more than twice as likely as New York adults to have bought sporting event tickets online within the past year. 15% of Boston’s Patriots fans belong to a household with an annual income of $150k or more.
TELEVISION:
In 2007, an average of 93.1 million Americans tuned in to the CBS Network to watch the Indianapolis Colts beat the Chicago Bears. The event averaged a 42.6% household rating, up from the 2006 match-up between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Seattle Seahawks, which was watched by 90.7 million viewers and an average of 41.6% of U.S. homes.
The most-watched Super Bowl of all time was in 1982 with a 49.1% rating, which also happened to be the fourth-highest rated television program since 1961 just behind the final episodes of M*A*S*H, Dallas and Roots Part VIII. Of the top-40 sports telecasts since January 1961, all but four telecasts were Super Bowls.
In local markets, the highest overall local rating in 2007 – at nearly 56% -- was in Indianapolis, IN., home of Super Bowl XLI champions, the Indianapolis Colts. The second largest local TV audience, with an average of 50.4%, Orlando-Daytona Beach, while Chicago, home of the Bears, ranked third with an average of 50.2%. Kansas City, Minneapolis and Milwaukee followed respectively as the next three markets with the largest Super Bowl audiences (see Table 1).
As expected, men watched the 2007 Super Bowl the most (41.1% rating, or 43.2 million viewers), yet a significant number of women, Hispanics and African Americans also tuned into the televised game. Approximately 36.4 million women over the age of 18 watched the 2007 Super Bowl for a 32.2% average rating. Among women viewers, those age 25-54 had the highest interest, with a 32.9% average rating. An average of 28.5% of African Americans (appr 10.1 million viewers), and an average of 15.5% of Hispanics (appr 6.2 million viewers) tuned into Super Bowl XLI.
For football fans, the Web has become an increasingly important part of pre-game preparations. In the week ending February 4, 2007, Superbowl.com drew 2.9 million unique visitors, a 24 percent increase over Super Bowl week in 2006. NFL.com attracted 2.3 million unique visitors that week, increasing 17 percent over the previous year. The NFL Team Sites had a weekly unique audience of 2.2 million, growing 13 percent year over year.
Bud, Nationwide and Snickers generated significant online buzz in 2007
Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers to Perform at Super Bowl XLII
