Super Bowl breaks TV viewership record

Super Bowl breaks TV viewership record

MUMBAI: The 2010 Super Bowl on CBS has broken all viewership records in the history of American television, amassing 106.5 million people.

According to Nielsen data, the Sunday Super Bowl game marking the victory of New Orleans Saints over Indianapolis Colts in Miami eclipsed the viewership record of the 1983 finale of wartime sitcom M-A-S-H, which was seen by 105.97 million viewers.
 
The previous most-watched Super Bowl game was last year‘s contest between Pittsburgh and Arizona, as it drew in an audience of 98.7 million. Nielsen says this is the fifth consecutive year that the Super Bowl has averaged more than 90 million viewers.
 
The television industry, however, has changed dramatically over the last three decades in the US. When the M-A-S-H finale aired on 28 February 1983, there were 83.3 million homes with televisions, which have now increased to over 115 million homes.
 
“The Super Bowl remains the premier television event of the year and is one of the few programmes in an era of fragmented TV viewership that can still attract a huge national audience," says Nielsen executive Dave Thomas.