Super Bowl LVII saw strong viewership figures and commanded a record amount for Super Bowl commercials. Here are the figures and what it means for the company that had the broadcasting rights.
What Happened: Media giant Fox Corp FOXFOXA had the broadcasting rights for Super Bowl LVII.
The match saw the Kansas City Chiefs beat the Philadelphia Eagles 38 to 35 to give the Chiefs its third Super Bowl win and second win in the past four years.
Fox reported Super Bowl LVII was watched by an average of 113 million viewers, setting a new six-year high for the NFL championship game. The viewership figure also made Super Bowl LVII the third most-watched television event in history.
The 2015 Super Bowl between the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks and the 2017 Super Bowl between the New England Patriots and Atlanta Falcons had an average viewership of 114.4 million and 113.7 million, respectively.
Super Bowl LVII was the most-streamed Super Bowl and event in the history of Fox Sports. The game had an average of 7 million streams, which was up 18% over last year (6 million) and up 103% to the 2020 Super Bowl stream by Fox (3.4 million).
On Fox Deportes, an average of 951,000 watched Super Bowl LVII. This set a record for the most-watched Super Bowl game in Spanish-language cable television history, as well as being the most-watched non-soccer event in Spanish-language cable history.
Fox said the Super Bowl Halftime Show, which featured Rihanna, had 118.7 million viewers. The Halftime Show was sponsored by Apple Inc AAPL for the first time, which could be a good start to the company’s sponsorship deal.
Rihanna’s halftime show was the most watched since Katy Perry performed in 2015 and became the second most-watched halftime performance for the Super Bowl ever. Perry holds the record with an average viewership of 121 million during the 2015 Super Bowl.
The company reported that a total of 182.6 million viewers watched a portion of Super Bowl LVII on Fox and Fox Deportes.
Related Link: Super Bowl Commercials 2023: The Complete List Of Super Bowl LVII Ads
Why It’s Important: Fox could see strong advertising dollars from Super Bowl LVII with 30-second commercials commanding a $6.5 million to $7 million price tag. While many of the ads were sold ahead of time and regardless of what viewership was, Fox can still benefit from the boost it got to its streaming platforms, Fox Deportes channel and overall strong content lineup.
Fox also got to air content before and after the game, which can sometimes see a strong lift from people tuned in all day.
Gordon Ramsay’s “Next Level Chef,” which was advertised many times throughout the game, had 15.7 million people tune in for its Season 2 premiere which followed Super Bowl LVII.
Fox said this was the most-watched cooking show telecast of all time, something the media company can use to now advertise “Next Level Chef” as and could command higher-priced ads for the rest of the season.
The first season of “Next Level Chef” launched in January 2022 and followed an afternoon NFL game. The premiere episode had 5.1 million viewers. Season 1 of the cooking show had an average of 7.2 million viewers.
As Benzinga previously reported, Fox could have a strong year of content that can boost its advertising revenue. The company was among the most watched for its coverage of the 2022 election, aired the 2022 World Series, aired the 2022 World Cup and had regular season NFL games. Add in the coverage of Super Bowl LVII and it could be the biggest lineup of premium content for Fox ever.
Fox reported first-quarter advertising revenue of $1.22 billion, which was up 8% year-over-year. The company cited strong political viewership and demand for ads as one of the reasons why.
In the second quarter, Fox saw overall revenue hit $4.61 billion, up 4% year-over-year. Advertising revenue was up 4% in the second quarter with pollical advertising, NFL games and the 2022 World Cup cited as reasons why. Television advertising revenue was up 5% in the second quarter.
The year-over-year increase came against having the rights to several “Thursday Night Football” games in the 2021 season, which are now covered by Amazon exclusively.
Fox will likely report third-quarter financial results in May. The results will cover the months of January, February and March, which had NFL games, NFL Playoff games and Super Bowl LVII.
FOX Price Action: Fox shares trade at $33.13 versus a 52-week trading range of $26.35 to $39.87.
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