COMMENTARY
Would You Pay $100 To Watch the Super Bowl?
- by Richard Whitman , Columnist, 6 hours ago
Is it just a matter of time before the Super Bowl becomes part of a subscription package?
A few years ago that would have been unthinkable. But earlier this week word surfaced that streamer Peacock’s first ever NFL playoff game earlier this month generated 2.8 million in new sign-ups over a three-day period.
And now a survey from Stagwell’s Harris Poll and Front Office Sports reports that 64% of NFL fans and 49% of all U.S. adults would pay for a subscription to watch the Super Bowl.
The poll was conducted earlier this month using a nationally representative sample of 2,100+ adults.
So it seems there may be lot more upside from streamers that want in on the NFL action.
The poll also found that 61% of NFL fans and 45% of all US adults say they would be likely to pay for a subscription to a streaming service to watch an NFL playoff game.
If the NFL were to make a postseason matchup a pay-per-view event, 57% of NFL fans and 42% of US adults surveyed say they would likely pay a one-time fee to watch.
I can remember talking to network TV types a few years back about putting the Big Game on some kind of pay tier. No way, they said at time, with a few even suggesting there’d be rioting in the streets.
That may seem extreme, but fans are very passionate about their teams.
But the industry has done a fiendishly good job of softening up the fan base—we're all now accustomed to paying lots of monthly or one-time fees for streaming services and other packages more tailored to our interests.
I wonder how much the Super Bowl would be priced as pay-per-view event? The Harris Poll found that over half of fans (53%) willing to pay a per-game fee (the Super Bowl wasn’t mentioned specifically in this context) would pay $10 or more. And 17% would be willing to pay $20 or more.
What about $100 for the Big Game? That sounds reasonable, doesn’t it? I know people who have paid that much for a pay-per-view boxing match that lasted five minutes.
The Big Game by contrast is a four-hour extravaganza with a wildly entertaining (sometimes) half-time show and dozens of over-the-top multimillion-dollar commercials.
I don’t know about you, but count me in.
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