• Gigaom, Tuesday, December 20, 2011 2:47 PM

Next year NBC will live-stream what's traditionally the highest-rated TV event of the year, the Super Bowl, with ads generally separate from those on the TV broadcast (which will also be available on one feed).

This move is "a sign of a tipping point in viewing habits," writes Marisa Guthrie in The Hollywood Reporter. "But it also underscores the philosophical change at NBC Sports, which in recent years has been the target of criticism from diehard sports fans for tape delaying events, especially the Olympics."

Still, NBC "feels totally comfortable with making a live stream of the Super Bowl available... because, based on its ratings for the 2008 and 2010 Olympic Games, as well as its weekly top-rated Sunday Night Football broadcasts, it knows that online viewers generally don’t cannibalize the live broadcast audience for these things," writes Ryan Lawler on Gigaom.

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