2014 Super Bowl

Earlier Tuesday, Nielsen issued final Live + Same Day national ratings for Super Bowl XLVIII and both the household rating and average audience figures have risen compared to the time zone adjusted fast nationals released yesterday.  The average audience for the game has increased to 112.2 million viewers, up from 111.5 million reported yesterday, which was already record-breaking.  The household rating for Super Bowl XLVIII now stands at 46.7, up from a 46.4 based on fast nationals issued Monday.  Super Bowl XLVIII now ranks alone as seventh highest rated Super Bowl ever; at 46.4 it had been tied for seventh best. The 69 share reported yesterday is unchanged.

WROC sports anchor John Kucko not only covers the big games for his Rochester, N.Y. CBS affiliate, he’s the go-to guy for many of parent Nexstar Broadcasting Group’s other stations across the country. For the Super Bowl this year he gave the 26 other stations something extra and cutting edge: views of the event through the new Google Glass technology.

It produced a lopsided result, but Sunday’s telecast of the Super Bowl on Fox drew a record 111.5 million viewers, according to updated Nielsen estimates — a reversal of preliminary numbers which showed the game was merely fifth all-time.

Known for producing the highest national viewership of the year, the Super Bowl is also a very local story. Despite the blowout performance of 2014’s Super Bowl XLVIII champions, the Seattle Seahawks, the average broadcast rating for the home-­team markets of Denver and Seattle both exceeded TVB’s projected national average* (46.3) by 11% and 22%, respectively. Additionally, the game’s host market, New York, saw ratings that exceeded the projected national average by 9%.

Many advertisers went for a more serious, toned-down feel than in previous years. Budweiser, Coca-Cola and Chrysler all hit patriotic notes. RadioShack got praise for its surprisingly frank acknowledgement of its dated image — and its use of 1980s pop culture figures including Alf. And “Seinfeld” characters Jerry, George and Newman got together for a mini reunion for Jerry Seinfeld’s show Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee. Still, the ads seemed to be upstaged by Joe Namath, at least on social media. When the football hero appeared on the field for the coin toss wearing a massive fur coat, Twitter and other sites buzzed with jokes.

Fox Sports will not be showing alternate camera angles such as the popular “All-22” view during its live stream of Super Bowl XLVIII because of contractual ties between the NFL and technology partner Microsoft. League and network officials confirmed that Fox Sports will not be reviving the alternate camera angles, which CBS Sports used during the Super Bowl live stream last year. Instead, Fox Sports will offer a straightforward, live simulcast of the televised game feed through its Fox Sports Go mobile application, and a first-ever stream of the game in Spanish.

Queen Latifah, host of the The Queen Latifah Show, will sing America the Beautiful on Sunday prior to kickoff of the big game.

Fox Sports detailed some its Super Bowl XLVIII plans last week during a couple of conference calls, and among the technical highlights will be the use of wind forecasting overlays similar to those used in the America’s Cup sailing as well as infrared cameras that can track body heat.

Television viewers will get a first hand view of the Super Bowl experience from the perspective of John Kucko, reporter and sports anchor at Rochester, N.Y., CBS affiliate WROC. Using a head-up display and the forward-facing cameras, Kucko will broadcast the unique sights and sounds of the week-long festivities leading up to the big game.

Fox News Channel announced today that President Obama will have a live sit-down with Bill O’Reilly on its broadcast sister net, beginning approximately at 4:30 p.m. ET on Super Bowl Sunday. The interview will take place at the White House, with an additional taped portion set for the Feb. 3 episode of The O’Reilly Factor.

KDVR Denver has been in Super Bowl planning mode for six weeks as the station that will broadcast the Broncos-Seahawks game Feb. 2. Now it’s all hands on deck with well over 100 people in Denver, plus 21 in New York/New Jersey poised for coverage. What can the Fox affiliate actually show, since CBS affil KUSA is the official Broncos station with exclusive access to players, locker rooms, game footage and team management?

Users of the Fox Sports Go app will have access to English and Spanish feeds of Feb. 2’s Super Bowl XLVIII. The event will be Fox Sports’ first live stream of the Super Bowl.

Fox Sports will use this weekend’s NFC title game in Seattle between the San Francisco 49ers and the Seahawks to test an infrared camera that will show how players’ body temperatures change throughout the game; another device will show how wind affects a quarterback or kicker; and the network will have more high-tech 4K cameras than ever before.

Spurred by Fox Sports having the rights to air the game itself, as well as the hometown advantage that comes with this year’s championship game being played in its market, WNYW New York will be covering every angle leading up to the big event.

New York TV stations and their news departments have plans in place for the day of the big game that include measures like extra live trucks in case of equipment problems, holding hotel rooms near the stadium should traffic be a nightmare, renting a trailer so crews can stay warm and setting aside ample time to go through security checks.

If the first Northeastern, outdoor Super Bowl is interrupted by another winter storm, Fox has a backup plan: Super Bowl Monday.

Fox has sold out of ad inventory for its broadcast of Super Bowl XLVIII, according to Neil Mulcahy, exec VP-sales, Fox Sports Media. Fox has won north of $4 million per 30-second spot for the 2014 Super Bowl, according to media buyers. CBS averaged between $3.7 million and $3.8 million for the 2013 Super Bowl, with some advertisers paying $4 million.

General Motors, the nation’s third-largest advertiser, is set to rejoin the ranks of Super Bowl advertisers after making a colorful exit from the big event in 2013. GM’s Chevrolet, typically the brand in the auto company’s portfolio that gets the lion’s share of the Super Bowl spotlight, will launch 12 new cars and trucks in the U.S. between mid-2013 and the end of 2014, offering a good reason for an appearance in the gridiron classic.

Fox is seeking around $4 million for the privilege of running a 30-second spot in Super Bowl XLVIII, according to buyers and other executives familiar with the situation, a slight tick up from the average price secured by CBS — between $3.7 million and $3.8 million — in 2013.

The past two Super Bowls have been streamed free online, but Fox may offer a type of paywall come February. The network is considering offering next year’s big game on an authenticated basis, according to Randy Freer, co-COO of the Fox Sports Media Group.

The soon-to-launch cable sports outlet, Fox Sports 1, will not broadcast the Super Bowl next year. Yet executives behind the scenes are making a play for the new network to get some of the Super Bowl ad dollars. The Fox broadcast network — a sister to Fox Sports 1 —will televise Super Bowl XLVIII on Feb. 2, 2014. To get one of the valuable ad slots available during the network’s broadcast of the game, sponsors have been told they must buy time in other Fox Sports content, according to ad buyers — with emphasis placed on Fox Sports 1.

With chatter about CBS’s broadcast of Super Bowl XLVII fading, News Corp.’s Fox has begun making early outreach to advertisers about next year’s event, according to people familiar with the situation, as part of broader talks with marketers about supporting Fox sports-oriented media outlets.