Paramount Global's simulcast of the record-breaking Super Bowl LVIII on Feb. 11 generated 3.4 million sign-ups for Paramount Plus, research company Antenna said.
Paramount's CBS unit already declared the matchup between the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers to be the most watched telecast in history, with a total audience of 124.3 million tuning into the CBS Television Network, Paramount Plus and Nickelodeon, among other channels.
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CBS also said the overtime game -- the longest in Super Bowl history -- generated record viewing for Paramount Plus as the most streamed Super Bowl ever.
Antenna said that 68% (2.3 million) of the Paramount Plus sign-ups during Super Bowl weekend came via a one-week free trial promotion. (Antenna’s initial Paramount Plus estimate doesn't include iTunes distribution, which Antenna estimates, accounted for 21% of the Paramount sign-ups.)
Paramount Plus was also heavily promoted during Super Bowl LVIII, notably by this commercial.
So did most of those 3.4 million new users churn out of Par Plus as soon as the game was over? Not necessarily, Antenna said.
The research company also estimated that nearly 3 million users signed up for Peacock over the three-day "Wild Card Weekend" in mid-January, with the streaming service's parent company, NBCUniversal, paying the NFL $100 million to have Peacock exclusively stream a Saturday night Wild Card game featuring the eventual Super Bowl champions Chiefs.
As of the end of February, nearly seven weeks after that Wild Card game, 71% of those Peacock sign-ups were still subscribing to the SVOD, Antenna said.
For Paramount Plus, Antenna observed that at the end of February, 65% of the Super Bowl LVIII sign-up cohort either remained subscribed to the Paramount Plus paid plan, or they had converted their free trial to paid.
