More than 150 million Americans are expected to tune into NBC for February 1st’s Super Bowl between the Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots. Millions more will look to stream the Big Game online, and NBC has that segment covered as well. The Peacock will offer an online feed that will include 11 hours of coverage.
NBC is dubbing its online coverage “Super Stream Sunday,” and the stream will go live at noon ET, six-and-a-half hours before kickoff. The 11-hour event will include pregame analysis, the game itself, Katy Perry and Lenny Kravitz’s halftime show, and the postgame debut of a new episode of The Blacklist. In order to access all of this content, viewers will need to head over to NBC.com or download the NBC Sports Live Extra app onto their device of choice.
By allowing cord-cutters to stream the game online, NBC is keeping pace with CBS and FOX, which broadcast the last two Super Bowls. CBS’ online coverage of Super Bowl XLVII in 2013 broke records by reaching more than three million unique viewers. FOX offered a live stream for 2014’s snoozer and claimed record-setting totals of its own. Both of those networks followed NBC’s lead, since the Comcast-owned network became the first one to live stream the Super Bowl when it last broadcast the game back in 2012.
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While NBC’s live stream will first and foremost offer more complete access to Super Bowl XLIX, it is also an advertisement of sorts for NBC’s “TV Everywhere” services. Normally, access to NBC Sports Live Extra requires users to enter their cable subscription information, and NBC hopes that stellar Super Bowl coverage will convince viewers to maintain their cable subscriptions in order to access NBC’s streaming content in the future.
“We are leveraging the massive digital reach of the Super Bowl to help raise overall awareness of TV Everywhere by allowing consumers to explore our vast TVE offering with this special one-day-only access,” said Alison Moore, EVP of TV Everywhere for NBCUniversal.
The Super Bowl live stream will only be available for free in the US; international NFL fans will have to pay $9.99 for NFL Game Pass if they want to tune in online.
