It’s a no-brainer that Sunday’s Super Bowl will be the year’s most-watched telecast.
But viewership for this year’s NFL playoffs was down from last year, which has the experts wondering whether this year’s game between the Baltimore Ravens and San Francisco 49ers is headed for a sack.
“The playoff numbers don’t necessarily translate into Super Bowl numbers,” says former Fox Sports p.r. exec Vince Wladika, who runs VMW Communications.
“It’s not like the World Series or NBA Finals, where bigger-market teams [like the Giants and Patriots last year] means a bigger number.”
Viewership for this year’s NFL Conference Championship games — Baltimore-New England and San Francisco-Atlanta — was down a substantial 15 percent.
“When you have that pronounced of a [downward] trend in the conference championship round, it’s likely to carry over to the Super Bowl,” says one exec, who asked to remain anonymous because his network is not carrying the game this year (it’s airing on CBS).
“It’s my experience that, barring a really unbelievable game — overtime, etc. — the numbers are going to be down a little bit on Sunday.”