Super Bowl Streaming Viewership Poised To Surge

The Super Bowl is the biggest TV event of the year, but will it ever become the biggest streaming event of the year?

That is unlikely to happen in 2019, but this year’s Big Game is poised to break new streaming records, if new data from Adtaxi pans out.

The digital marketing agency released the results of its annual “Super Bowl Viewership and Consumer Streaming Trends Survey,” which examines streaming habits around the NFL championship game.

The survey found 21% of respondents say they plan to watch at least part of the game via streaming video this year, up from 8.1% last year, a 160% increase.

CBS has the TV rights to this year’s game and will make it free to stream on its websites, connected TV and mobile apps.  It will not require any authentication, eliminating some of the friction that comes with streaming most NFL games.

It isn't clear whether the streaming feed will include the same advertising spots that run during on the linear broadcast feed.

If 20% of consumers actually streamed the game, that would mean around 20 million consumers streamed the event, which would be a record for a single live event.

“Based on the exponential shift in our data, we may well see a day when Super Bowl streaming overtakes traditional TV viewership completely,” says Chris Loretto, executive vice president, Adtaxi.

Adtaxi also found nearly 70% of consumers will engage with Super Bowl-related content on a second screen, largely social media and group chats.

A majority of respondents were excited to watch the game itself, with 27% saying they were most looking forward to the commercials.

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