Initial viewership reports are in and they show ratings are down AGAIN for this year’s Super Bowl. Â
Not only that, but it’s the lowest number since 2009.
And the 4th straight year of decline since the 2015 peak.
I wonder why?
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Perhaps it’s due to the big number of Americans who tuned out during the Kaepernick era and never tuned back in. Â
I haven’t watched a regular season game in over two years.Â
And you know what? Â My life is just fine without it!
How about you?
It should be noted that these are just the initial overnight reports and are subject to change. Â
Here are more details, from Bloomberg:
The lowest-scoring Super Bowl ever probably suffered a decline in television ratings, continuing a downward trend for the most-watched TV event of the year, according to preliminary figures from CBS Corp.
The Sunday-night championship, in which the New England Patriots defeated the Los Angeles Rams 13-3, drew an overnight rating of 44.9 on CBS’s flagship broadcast network. That would be the lowest rating since the 2009 Super Bowl between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Arizona Cardinals tallied a 42.1.
Overnight figures often change with the reporting of the official ratings, which CBS is expected to release later Monday along with viewership numbers. And TV ratings alone don’t show the whole picture: More and more Americans now watch the game online.
Last year’s high-scoring Super Bowl, in which the Philadelphia Eagles toppled the Patriots, attracted 103.4 million viewers on Comcast Corp.’s NBC, or a 47.4 rating. That marked the lowest ratings in nine years.
Sunday night’s ratings were understandably robust in the home markets of the two teams. The overnight rating in Los Angeles was 44.6, the highest since 1996, CBS said. The second-largest U.S. TV market after New York, Los Angeles lacked a team from 1995 to 2016, when the Rams returned from St. Louis and the Chargers moved from San Diego. In Boston, the ninth-largest market, the rating of 57.4 was the best since 2015, the network said.
CBS had exclusive U.S. rights to air the game. But with fewer people watching traditional TV, it streamed the Super Bowl on more platforms than ever before. It was on CBS Sports’ website and mobile app, as well as the CBS All Access subscription service.
The Super Bowl remains the most-watched TV show of the year, but its audience has shrunk after hitting a record in 2015, when 114.4 million TV viewers tuned in.
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