Tv, Super Bowl Xlvi | featured news

By the time the second season premiere of “The Voice” starts after the Super Bowl, we’re well-acquainted with the four judges, thanks to many ads during the big game. Plus, Blake Shelton sang “America the Beautiful” with his wife, Miranda Lambert, before kickoff.

An estimated 111.3 million people watched the New York Giants defeat the New England Patriots, 21-17, Nielsen said Monday afternoon. Of course, it also means a record number of people saw rapper/singer M.I.A. flip off America during Madonna’s halftime show. NBC and the NFL are engaged in what is not yet quite a war of words — maybe a kerfuffle of words — over that incident.

Retailers are throwing in extras such as free delivery and installation, offers to pay the sales tax and complimentary Blu-ray players and 3-D glasses to attract customers. Whether the New England Patriots or the New York Giants win the Super Bowl this weekend, television buyers will be the ones scoring big.

In the age of Twitter and Facebook, many Super Bowl viewers will use the commercial breaks to go online and see what people are saying about the game. This year, advertisers want them to tweet about their favorite commercials as well.

Super Bowl spots are still the hottest ticket in advertising. NBC has sold all the commercial airtime for the Feb. 5 game in Indianapolis and even has a waiting list of advertisers. The average cost for a 30-second spot this year was $3.5 million, with some time slots costing as much as $4 million.

Despite a steep increase in advertising prices and a lackluster economy, commercial spots for Super Bowl XLVI are all sold out, showing yet another sign of the increasing influence of sports TV on Madison Avenue.