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ampa Bay’s blowout over Kansas City in this week’s Super Bowl highlighted a migration away from traditional television viewership, and directed the attention to the growing popularity of streaming, along with the importance of strong partnerships between companies and the NFL.

The NFL claim its partnership revenue, which includes recent deals with Postmates, Subway, and Hyperice, was valued at $US1.62 billion in 2020, compared with $US1.47 billion in 2019.

Partnerships like these are crucial for a league which lost up to $US4 billion in revenue due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Speaking with CNBC, NFL Chief Revenue Officer, Renie Anderson, said despite the struggles the league can be optimistic.

“It’s an odd thing to say in a global pandemic, but I feel good about our business,” Anderson said.

The reason the league is optimistic is due to innovations being made during a very different season never before experienced.

Empty seats at Raymond James Stadium for the match contained 23 000 square feet of LED screens on seat covers, displaying advertisements, messages, and other content.

Other innovations the NFL are more frequently using for profit are virtual meet-and-greets, letting brands place messages on seat covers, and companies being able to use the Super Bowl icon for their own promotions.

The streaming trend is on the rise, amplified by the pandemic, with research showing nearly three quarters of NFL fans owning a smartphone, and over half having a tablet, with and that digital numbers were up 65% from the previous Super Bowl.

Sports Business Daily reporting a 91.629 million viewership average during the Super Bowl, which was the fixture’s lowest TV numbers since 2006, but statistics show NFL fans in America are nearly 20% more likely to buy something they see being advertised, highlighting the importance of the much anticipated Super Bowl advertisements televised every year.