• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, January 23, 2015

Two big football brands – the Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots -- will go at it on Feb. 1, continuing TV’s biggest annual event in terms of advertising and viewers.

The winners? TV advertisers, viewers, and, of course, the particular network airing the big game: this year, NBC, which will rake in just under $300 million for the entire day in advertising revenues.

The issue about whether deflated footballs may have had an effect on the New England-Indianapolis AFC Championship game probably won’t negatively impact this game. If anything, viewers may be paying more attention, concerned about issues of fair play.

And there’s Katy Perry performing at half time -- which some believe will bring in more female viewers. The Super Bowl, of course, isn’t your typical NFL football game -- it always brings in a broad range of viewers, men, women, young and old.

That said, the NFL has had a rough year, with some very public instances of players’ bad personal conduct, drug usage, and other off-field activities. And we haven’t even talked about all those issues of athletes’ brain injuries from crushing tackles, which might have happened in Super Bowls.

Does all this contribute to higher TV interest?

This year, overall TV advertising market has been soft -- and the rate of advertising sale deals in the Super Bowl have been a bit slower than in the past. But all that is relative. NBC will still post another record for an average thirty-second commercial: $4.5 million.

Good news for all concerning the actual game itself: The betting line is virtually a pick ‘em, meaning it will be a close one. For any sporting event, that almost always means viewership will be a little more inflated than the year before.