PHOENIX – The Super Bowl is returning to normal from a press perspective, with accredited media returning to pre-COVID-19 levels.
- The league has credentialed over 6,000 media members from over 24 countries to cover Super Bowl 57 in Glendale, Ariz., on Feb. 12.
- That’s up 13 percent from the 5,300 media members who covered Super Bowl 56 in Los Angeles last year. And a 150 percent increase over the 2,400 media covering Super Bowl 55 in Tampa at the height of the pandemic in 2021.
- This year’s total could equal or surpass the 6,000-plus media who covered Super Bowl 54 in Miami in 2020 before the pandemic put the U.S. sports industry into limbo. But the NFL doesn’t have final figures yet.
The NFL is coming off a massive TV season heading into the kickoff of Super Bowl 57 on Fox Sports (6:30 p.m. ET).
The league’s AFC and NFC conference championship games averaged 50.7 million viewers. That’s up two percent from last year (49.6 million viewers) and the highest since 2014 (53.7 million viewers).
Overall, this year’s NFL Playoff games from Super Wild Card Weekend through the Conference Championships averaged 35.3 million viewers, up five percent from the five-year average between 2018-2002.
Meanwhile, the NFL Playoffs reached a total unduplicated audience of 217.9 million viewers – or nearly 70 percent of viewers in U.S. TV households.
On Tuesday, the NFL and law enforcement community members will brief the media on the public safety strategy around this year’s Super Bowl between the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles at State Farm Stadium.
