Innovation is Essential for The Changing Sports Landscape: The Case of Super Bowl LV — Maru Group
Super Bowl LV had the lowest TV rating of any Super Bowl in over 50 years, and it was cause for much hand-wringing. But a focus on television broadcasting obscures the fact that the way people interact with sports is changing, with people embracing video highlights and moving away from watching entire games. And while the way people relate to sports is transforming, our research reveals that the Super Bowl remains by far and away the most popular and exciting cultural and sporting event in America.
Maru recently partnered with Variety magazine to produce an in-depth look into how people relate to sports. Entitled “Sports’ New TV Formula: A Special Report” it offers “an in-depth examination of sports programming and experimentation necessary to capture a new era of fans.”
“Sports are at a critical point,” writes Variety’s Gavin Bridge. “While TV viewership is in a clear state of decline (though still sizable), younger fans are embracing new ways of engaging with leagues with decreasing importance placed on watching games live.” Our research results “depict a radically different type of fan who values brand extensions into areas of interest while placing less value on watching whole games.”
The Super Bowl: the way people relate to the game is changing
The Super Bowl LV is an excellent case study in how the way people relate to the game is changing. But it also stands out as a shining example of how powerful a hold sport can have on the culture.
TV viewing of the Super Bowl was down to 92 million viewers, the lowest number of viewers since 2006. But Super Bowl-related content got 158 million views on YouTube alone. Across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube around 60 Super Bowl LV advertisers generated 592.2 million views on social media across their ads, trailers, and teasers. On social media there were over 4 million mentions of the Super Bowl itself and a total of 7.5 million mentions of all things Super Bowl-related. Clearly, people are not abandoning the Super Bowl.
Even the way people watch on TV is transforming. CBS, who broadcast the game, reported that “Super Bowl LV was the most live-streamed NFL game ever. The average minute audience of 5.7 million viewers was the highest average minute audience for any NFL game and was up +65% vs. last year’s Super Bowl.” Super Bowl Sunday was also CBS All Access’s (now Paramount+) best day ever in terms of new subscriber sign-ups, unique devices logged in, and minutes spent on the network’s streaming service.
The Super Bowl has stand out appeal versus the other big national viewing events
How people connect with the Super Bowl is changing. But its popularity is enduring. We asked Americans to trade-off their desire to watch 15 different iconic sporting and cultural events. We also measured how excited they were about each of these events, using Implicit Association Testing (IAT).