In a thrilling Super Bowl where every play mattered throughout every quarter and even into overtime, Paramount Plus never turned the ball over and the streamer reportedly took the show to the end zone for the majority of US subscribers. .
At least that was my story.
There's a good chance that most of Paramounts Plus' 63 million subscribers tuned into the live sporting event that officially began at 6:40 p.m. ET, but began many hours earlier with multiple pregame shows and countless commercials. .
In a world where fewer and fewer people watch live television of any kind, live sporting events (and some award shows) are among the few things drawing people back to broadcast television. By some estimates, more than half of Americans no longer have cable or broadcast television, a fact that doesn't matter much when you can watch whatever you want at any time through a multitude of streaming services.
However, no one wants to be the person who has no idea what Taylor Swift's team did during the most-watched sporting event of the year. There are bets to be made, conversations to be had, and social events to be shared. If you're not watching the Super Bowl live, what's the point?
Why stream the big show?
I'm not even a sports fan and I can shamelessly admit that I didn't watch a single football game during the regular season before the Super Bowl. However, the Super Bowl is not just a game; It's an event, every part of which, from pregame warmups and interviews to the national anthem and, of course, all those commercials, is analyzed and dissected. Doing all that is a sport in itself.
Having recently cut the cord, this was my first year watching the Super Bowl through Paramount Plus. I subscribe to the version of the service with commercials; I suppose if I had subscribed to the premium tier, I could have upgraded to the cheaper tier just to watch the Super Bowl commercials (otherwise I might have missed Ben Affleck rapping, and finished the entire game in 60 minutes).
However, with so many people streaming at once, I was worried that my local ISP and/or Paramount Plus wouldn't be up to the task.
Superficial looks online, especially when the game was about to start, were not encouraging. Some on X (formerly Twitter) reported the app not loading and blue screens. There are some hints on DownDetector that he struggled significantly early in the game and then coped just fine for most of the rest. When I checked Threads and X again later, I noticed more posts reporting a smooth experience, combined with some complaints about the losing team.
I guess I was lucky. For most of the match, in which the two teams were rarely separated by more than three points, serve held. At one point, my wife commented on the visual quality, which, while apparently still not 4K, looked excellent on my 65-inch TCL TV.
I know streaming platforms can sometimes be a few seconds (sometimes much more) behind live streams, but based on the threads I was posting and the instant reactions, I think we were in as much real time as possible. I can't imagine what it would have been like if Paramount Plus had been about a minute behind Patrick Mahomes' game-winning touchdown in overtime.
Still there?
It was not without problems. Although the current was never interrupted, at times it accelerated. I never saw the stream stop, but I counted three or four brief moments where the game action was going at double speed (it was like rushed game action that no one could control). It only lasted a few seconds and to my surprise the audio stayed in sync without speeding up.
After the game went to overtime, and Taylor and I resorted to nail-biting, Paramount Plus decided that maybe I wasn't watching anymore and asked me if I was still around or if it should end the broadcast. I panicked and almost touched the remote as I ran to press the “Yes, I'm alive and still watching” button.
The latest misstep of the night is actually a feature of most streaming platforms. When the game was officially over but the trophy ceremony had not yet taken place, Paramount Plus attempted to start a countdown to launch the new season of Halo. I once again jumped ahead to get ahead of Paramount Plus' proactive gaming action.
Overall, it was a good test for Paramount Plus, although I wonder if it will be ready for next year, when even more people will be streaming the big game through its platform.
As for me, I'm trying to decide how I'll broadcast the next big live event: the Oscars on ABC. I'm not even sure what platform will stream it, but I hope it has its gaming aspect.
