NBC plans on treating football fans on Super Bowl Sunday with 11 hours of streamed, free live coverage of the big game.
While the network's online viewers normally need a subscription with a television service to watch shows, proof of a subscription won't be necessary for watching the Seattle Seahawks take on the New England Patriots in the "Super Stream Sunday" promotion, according to CNN.
The offering is the latest move made by NBC to get more viewers to sign up for cable service in the future, having debuted its TV Everywhere app last year to get more online viewers. The network will promote the app for online viewers during the game.
The livestream will begin at noon eastern time on Feb. 1, and will cover pre and post-game coverage, the game and the half-time show, which will be headlined by pop singer Katy Perry, TechTimes reported. The stream will end with a new episode of the crime drama "Blacklist" at 10 p.m.
NBC is making the free stream available for viewers on its website and on the NBC Sports Live Extra. Viewers will be able to watch it on their tablets and computers, but unfortunately not on their smartphones due to Verizon's exclusive streaming deal with the National Football League (NFL).
This year's livestream is NBC's second for the Super Bowl, with the first being offered in 2012 for Super Bowl XLVI, Tech Times reported. CBS provided its own service in 2013, followed by Fox in 2014.
"Super Stream Sunday builds off of NBCUniversal's commitment to create broader TV Everywhere opportunities for our customers," said Allison Moore, NBC's general manager and executive vice president for TV Everywhere. "We are leveraging the massive digital reach of the Super Bowl to help raise overall awareness of TV Everywhere by allowing consumers to explore out vast TVE offering with one-day-only access."
The Super Bowl gets the most views on average out of all shows in the U.S., as NFL football is the most popular programming on TV, according to TechTimes. Last year's game got about 528,000 online views in the U.S. and 111.5 million TV views.
