• by Wayne Friedman , February 6, 2007

Despite major changes in the TV business landscape, the biggest annual event--the Super Bowl, now in its 41st year--continues to rate the highest among viewers.

Overall, it's expected the game drew 93.1 million plus viewers--a healthy number in recent years. It was the second-most-watched Super Bowl of all time.

Preliminary Nielsen data shows that the game averaged a 42.6 household rating/64 share for the competitively close game, in which the Indianapolis Colts bested the Chicago Bears 29-17 on a rainy Miami night. That's up 2% from the 2005 match-up, making it the highest-rated Super Bowl since 2000.

Last year, the game pulled in 90.7 million total viewers in the game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Seattle Seahawks. That was the best total viewer score in 10 years.

For almost a decade or more, the Super Bowl has seen this level of viewer interest, despite an evolving TV industry and the content on the screen.

"It doesn't matter who the half-time entertainment is, it doesn't matter who's playing, it doesn't matter whether the commercials are funny or not, and it doesn't matter how many channels viewers have," said Brad Adgate, senior vice present and corporate research director of Horizon Media. "It is really immune from all that."

Still, Adgate says, a big plus was that the game was close well into the fourth quarter. Plus, people stayed indoors in most parts of the country, due to the bitterly cold and windy conditions in the Midwest and the East.

The game actually grew this year to a 32.4 rating among 18-49 viewers, up a tick from the 31.8 number ABC got a year ago. While usually important to national TV advertisers, 18-49 demos are somewhat less important with Super Bowl sponsors, since a wide variety of viewers tune into the big game.