Super Bowl Viewership Rose as Game Went On

Most-watched commercials aired in fourth quarter

By Jon Lafayette -- Broadcasting & Cable, 2/4/2013 5:43:20 PM

Viewership of the Super Bowl rose pretty consistently throughout the game, including during the34-minute blackout in the New Orleans Superdome, according to an analysis by Rentrak.

Viewership peaked just before the end of the game as the champion Baltimore Ravens held off a rally by the San Francisco 49ers. Viewership just before 11 p.m. was about 20% higher for the average of the whole game.

Rentrak declined to say how many people it calculated watched the game, reserving that data for its clients.

When the blackout began in the third quarter, viewership was about at the average for the entire game. When it ended, viewership was about 5% higher, according to Rentrak.

The most-watched ad of the game was for Samsung's Galaxy mobile phone, which ran in the fourth quarter, and was seen by about 17% more viewers than the average for the whole game.

Most of ads with the highest viewership ran in the fourth quarter. Ads in the first quarter of the game had 10% to 15% lower viewership than the game on average.

A few ads ran during the blackout and re-ran after the game resumed. According to Rentrak, those ads had 3% to 5% more viewership when they ran the second time.