Super Bowl Live Stream: Looks Great But Nothing Innovative

By Brad Hubbard | @bradhubbard

It’s 2015 and you can watch the Super Bowl on just about any device you wanted to. Streaming technology has gotten to a place where people now expect great quality. While all this should be expected, what is new is the fact that you can watch the game without confirming your cable or satellite subscription. 

As you can imagine, the video stream did some big numbers as Streaming Media’s EVP Dan Rayburn tweeted out after the game.

Even with that many people, the stream quality was top notch. While this is a lot of people, it is well behind the 5.3 million who watched the USA vs Belgium World Cup match this past summer.

The Super Bowl is a free, over the air event. It would make sense that if the event was streamed (which is was) and that anyone would be able to watch the game online.  NBC thought so too and did not require you to have a cable or satellite subscription to watch the game through NBCSports.com which was a first.

NBC didn’t take full advantage of the live stream though.

There was only a stream of the game. There wasn’t a ’22’ angle or a ‘skycam’ angle. The experience lacked in a lot of ways. They could have done a lot more like ESPN did during the College Football National Championship game but chose not to.

Not only was it a great Super Bowl but it was also a well executed one by NBC. The live stream was of quality, was stable and served the cord cutters. While NBC could have done more with the medium, it at least allowed fans to watch a great event for free.