*Update 2-8-17 3:25 PM ET by Keith Nelson Jr: Added additional information on how Nielsen and Facebook count social media activity for Super Bowl LI and Facebook’s differing numbers regarding Super Bowl LI*
Last night, Lady Gaga danced around with drones overhead, and Tom Brady cemented himself as the greatest quarterback ever, making history. Yet less people showed interest in Super Bowl LI on Facebook and Twitter than they had the two previous years.
For last night’s contest between the Atlanta Falcons and the New England Patriots, 44.833 million people on Facebook sent 175 million interactions, according to data released by Nielsen Social. Those totals are down from the 60 million people who had 200 million interactions on Facebook for last year’s Super Bowl matchup. And both of those games were dwarfed by the record-breaking Super Bowl 49, which attracted 65 million people on Facebook who had 265 million interactions.
The discrepancy could have to do with the way Nielsen and Facebook tracks activity surrounding TV events. Nielsen launched Social Content Ratings last August and track activity only in the U.S. and not just from owned pages such as the NFL’s page. Facebook, who provided the social media data for the previous two Super Bowls, tracks activity across the globe and includes owned pages. Facebook’s data about Super Bowl LI states 64 million people sending 240 million interactions, more than Super Bowl 50.
Tom Brady’s fifth Super Bowl win fared a bit better on Twitter. Super Bowl LI attracted 3.432 million people who either composed and/or engaged with a Super Bowl-related tweet. There were also 27.6 million tweets using the Super Bowl LI hashtag, up from Super Bowl 50’s 27 million hashtag-related tweets.
Until this year, no one had ever seen a Super Bowl go into overtime and yet the extra time in Super Bowl LI did not translate in the viewership numbers. Super Bowl LI had an average audience of 111.3 million people, down slightly from Super Bowl 50’s 111.9 million. Super Bowl LI did have an average streaming audience of 1.7 million, ahead of last year’s 1.4 million average streaming audience, and more than twice the 800,000 people NBC’s stream of Super Bowl 49 averaged. But those streaming number might have been even higher if Fox’s streaming options hadn’t crashed during the game.
The Super Bowl’s underwhelming viewership and social media activity cap an NFL season that saw declines in regular season and playoff TV ratings compared to the last two years.
Instagram is testing a new format for long-form videos called Features. It allows select creators to upload horizontal videos running up to 90 minutes long. Instagram has already tested the new format with creators in Brazil, and now, it's expanding to tens of thousands of creators across the US.
How will Instagram's new Features format work?
Instagram is making its way to yet another screen, and this time, Apple TV is getting a taste of the Reels rabbit hole. The company has launched a dedicated Instagram app for Apple TV, bringing Reels, longer videos, and live shows to the big screen. So, if watching one quick clip on a phone somehow turns into an hour of scrolling, there's now a much larger screen for that.
Instagram brings Reels and more to Apple TV
I have lost count of how many times I have gone to bed thinking I will finally sleep on time, only to somehow end up scrolling Instagram or X again. A few minutes turn into an hour, then another, and before I notice, it is 2 or 3 a.m. The next morning, I am usually annoyed with myself because I could have just slept and felt considerably better for the day ahead.
It is also a surprisingly hard habit to beat. Knowing you should put the phone down does not always help once it is already in your hand. Brick Night is a new gadget built around that exact problem. Instead of relying on you to remember to turn on an app blocker, it automatically restricts selected apps and websites when your phone enters your chosen sleep space during the hours you set.