• by Wayne Friedman , February 8, 2019

CBS posted lower traditional TV viewing for “Super Bowl Llll” versus 2018’s game --- but says out-of-home viewing was even with the event of a year ago.

Nielsen says out-of-home viewing -- in locations such as other people’s homes, bars, restaurants and hotels -- earned 12 million viewers, the same number of viewers that NBC pulled in with the airing of the Super Bowl a year ago.

CBS says viewing from all platforms -- including out-of-home and digital -- totaled 112.7 million viewers. This includes CBS Television Network, CBS Interactive, NFL digital properties, Verizon Media mobile properties and ESPN Deportes television and digital properties.

Traditional TV viewing on the CBS Television Network, according to Nielsen, was down 5% to 98.2 million viewers from the 103.4 million viewers on NBC a year ago.

At the same time, Super Bowl viewing on digital platforms grew 31% to 2.6 million viewers during the in-game window. These results are from Nielsen’s average minute audience measure.  Last year, Super Bowl viewing on digital platforms was at 2.02 million viewers.

In-game advertising revenue for “Super Bowl Llll” sank 5% from $408 million a year ago to $382 million, according to a preliminary estimate from Kantar Media.