NBCSports.com Posts Sunday Night Football Traffic Gain

Written by Steve Donohue

Tuesday, September 15. 2009 at 04:15 PM EDT Post a comment

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NBCSports.com drew more than a quarter million online viewers to the simulcasts of the first two NFL games carried on the site, the network said today.

The kickoff of the 2009 football season last Thursday generated 264,908 video stream starts, when NBC ran the Tennessee Titans – Pittsburgh Steelers game both on TV and online. And Sunday’s Green Bay Packers – Chicago Bears games generated 254,483 video streams.

So far, the online telecasts of Sunday Night Football are performing better for NBC than they did last year, when NBC averaged 216,000 video starts for each game. Also, Web surfers are sticking with the NBCSports.com video coverage longer, averaging 55.17 minutes on the site on Sunday. Last year, the average viewer spent 35 minutes online watching the game.

After using Adobe Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: ADBE)'s Flash player to deliver games online last year, NBC has switched to Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT)'s Silverlight platform for its football coverage this season.

While the traffic on NBCSports.com pales in comparison to the numbers CBSSports.com posted for its March Madness coverage, NBC notes that its interactive online games, which allow viewers to choose from multiple camera angles, are meant to be a companion to its TV broadcasts.