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Super Bowl breaks M*A*S*H record, becomes most watched TV show of all-time.
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Yeah, I always thought it was funny as the years went by that no previous Super Bowl broke the record. I think M*A*S*H will hold the record for a scripted TV show for a very, very long time; as more and more cable channels, the internet and DVRs break up viewing habits, the only thing that can really draw these kinds of numbers any longer is a live event, especially sports.
I don't know if it's a US only thing, though none of the articles I've found refer to it as being just US figures. It could mean they're referring to households and not total viewers.
Thankfully, my household was not in either of those counts. If feels weird, though, being in the majority of something.
According to Wikipedia, 2.5 billion people watched Princess Diana's funeral. That's the record for global viewers.
This year's Super Bowl is apparently the most people who watched a single network broadcast in the world. Things like the funeral, World Cup matches and other global sporting events are broken up among different broadcasters, sometimes airing on more than one network at a time.
That's one reason why the rate is so high for advertisers with the Super Bowl. You have 100+ million people watching your commercial. While 1 billion people tuned into the recent Michael Jackson funeral, the viewership was so fragmented that even the highest rated broadcast had only a fraction of people watching...
This year's Super Bowl is apparently the most people who watched a single network broadcast in the world. Things like the funeral, World Cup matches and other global sporting events are broken up among different broadcasters, sometimes airing on more than one network at a time.
That's one reason why the rate is so high for advertisers with the Super Bowl. You have 100+ million people watching your commercial. While 1 billion people tuned into the recent Michael Jackson funeral, the viewership was so fragmented that even the highest rated broadcast had only a fraction of people watching...
I always wonder how accurate these numbers are. Given that the there are so few Nielsen households. Further that the types of shows that people watch whom are willing to have there viewing habits recorded may be quite different from those whom would be opposed to such a situation.
Though I would think that the digital boxes from the cable and satellite companies record and send back viewer data to those companies for a near complete analysis of TV viewership. Unless there are laws against that.
Though I would think that the digital boxes from the cable and satellite companies record and send back viewer data to those companies for a near complete analysis of TV viewership. Unless there are laws against that.
A billion people watched that freak's funeral? Holy crap... who are these people? I've lost all faith in mankind. I wonder if OJ's funeral will get a billion viewers.
I find that hard to believe. Global population was 5.8 billion in 1997
http://www.google.com/publicdata?ds=wb-wdi&met=sp_pop_totl&tdim=true&dl=en&hl=en&q=global+population
meaning that 43% of all people in the world watched her funeral. Including these billions in India and Africa and the poorer Asian countries with no TV, and all these billions in China / South America who have simply no interest in Diana?
Original source is dodgy too. Just a throwaway comment in a BBC story about 'what happened on this day in the past'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/september/6/newsid_2502000/2502307.stm
Other websites also quote this figure with no explanation of where it came from. Interestingly, one site says UK viewing figures were 25 million, i.e. half of the population of the UK.
If only 50% of the UK bothered to watch the funeral of their own princess, then i doubt that as much as 43% of the rest of the world would also make the effort.
