Link: http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/content_display/news/national-broadcast/e3ib96053a9e47796d71ebdb2fe8f774188
In this article from Media Week, we're told that there were enough commercials to make up 3 quarters of a football game at 47 minutes and 50 seconds. The primary culprits were the usual suspects of dotcom businesses - 8 of them, 5 auto companies and beer coming in 3rd. The one steep drop this year was in movies as "not a single full length trailer was shown"and movies on took up 2mins and 45 seconds. Along with the Super Bowl being the most watched program of all time "CBS likely matched or slightly exceeded the $213 million NBC booked against Super Bowl XLIII."
The reason this article is important is because it proves that despite all that is said about TV being obsolete, it proves that people still get together as a whole to watch television in prime time and that "top network sports events (are) enormously valuable" (214) because of larger male audiences on weekends and there interest in more "big ticket items like cars and sporting equipment" (214)
This along with the subsequent article about ESPN being the second most watched cable channel in January, could be taken as proof that like in radio, sports will always have a place. The sports audience might be smaller than the prime time TV watchers or sitcom watchers in general but it's a far more loyal and group oriented audience to sell specialty products to. While more traditional sitcom or even reality TV has taken to the internet and to mobile phones, its something that is more primarily enjoyed alone, unlike sports which is something done amongst a group (primarily male but I think football especially can be argued). Either way, sports are here to stay and are keeping TV afloat.
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