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The Super Bowl, which draws the biggest American TV audience, is about to get bigger with World Wide Web coverage.
For the first time ever, the Super Bowl will be available to football fans watching it online, on tablets or on mobile phones.
NFL, NBC and Verizon Wireless have agreed to supersize the big game — a change that will make it virtually impossible to escape football’s biggest matchup, set for Feb. 5 in Indianapolis.
Super Bowl XLVI isn’t the only post-season game to get the streaming treatment. The NFL Pro Bowl and NBC’s Wild-Card Saturday doubleheader games will also be available in the same way.
Viewers will be able to visit NBCSports.com to get the games online or on tablets such as the iPad, while phone users will have access via the NFL Mobile app offered only by Verizon Wireless.
For those who own Verizon 3G phones, there will be a $10 charge to access the Super Bowl via Verizon Video, the service that includes the NFL app, while 4G phone owners will get it for free.
Last year’s game, won by the Green Bay Packers, attracted a record 111 million viewers, making it the biggest US TV show in history.
In the past, the league and its network partners have had to crack down on rogue sites that attempt to stream the game online without permission.
NBC doesn’t think a streamed Super Bowl will cannibalize viewership, even though TV ratings giant Nielsen doesn’t count ratings on alternative devices yet.
The company is hoping to enhance the experience by giving viewers the chance to rewind plays, watch from different angles and repeat commercials.
“Our extensive Sunday Night Football and Olympic research shows that live streaming does not cannibalize the television audience,” an NBC spokesman said. “People default to the best screen available. In fact, our research shows an enhanced two-screen viewing experience leaves consumers more engaged.”
The digital blowout could deliver a new revenue stream for NBC and give marketers who don’t have the stomach for a $3.5 million 30-second ad spot on TV the opportunity to put their ads into the digital coverage.
NBC has been streaming “Sunday Night Football” since 2008, and says it gets 200,000 to 300,000 streams for each “Sunday Night” game.
Pepsi and VW are among those signed up as Super Bowl TV advertisers.
The new initiative also suggests NBC has big plans to shake up Olympic coverage, offering hope to those who want to see more of their favorite sports live from London in 2012.
NBC got a new sports honcho, Mark Lazarus, in May. He took over from longtime chief Dick Ebersol, who had favored prime-time packages that were not live but drew advertisers. Lazarus has said that every Olympic event will be broadcast live on at least one platform from London, though the network hasn’t provided specifics.