9% of the 194M US Adults Who Plan to Watch Super Bowl Expect to Buy TVs, Says NRF

The National Retail Federation estimates 193.8 million U.S. adults plan to watch Super Bowl LIV live from Miami and to spend $17.2 billion in connection with the Fox telecast, said the association Thursday. NRF canvassed 7,300 adults Jan. 2-9 and found 9 percent plan to buy new TV sets in time for the game. That would equate to about 17.4 million TVs. Fox Sports will produce the Feb. 2 broadcast in native 1080p with hybrid log-gamma HDR, Kevin Callahan, vice president-field operations and engineering, told the Sports Video Group in December. There are “real reasons” why sports look better in 1080p than in 4K at 60 frames a second, said Mike Davies, Fox senior vice president-field and technical operations. “At 60 frames, in 4K, you will get more motion blur in action scenes.” Pay-TV and streaming services that take the Fox feed will have the option of upconverting it to 4K, he said. “We still must remember that while it’s all well and good that we are doing this in UHD, that very few people will be seeing it that way. We do need to serve the greater audience of 100-plus million people domestically, and make sure the experience is good for them.”