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Watch Super Bowl 50 Live Online: Start Time, Free Streaming Video Link For Panthers Vs. Broncos Showdown

By Nathan Francis
Published on: 00:00 PST, Feb 7, 2016

Fans can watch Super Bowl 50 live online and catch all the action as the Denver Broncos take on the Carolina Panthers.

Sunday’s game is being broadcast on CBS, but the network is opening it up to a vast online audience in the hopes of drawing as many eyes as possible to the game (and the lucrative commercials). The game draws in close to 115 million fans in the United States alone, and CBS executives are hoping to grab several million more by including free live streaming video of Super Bowl 50.

“For us, our goal is to expose the game to the largest audience possible for the Super Bowl,” said Jeffrey Gerttula, a senior vice president of CBS Sports Digital, in an interview with the New York Times.

Start time for Super Bowl 50 is 6:30 p.m. ET, but fans may want to tune in a bit earlier so they can catch Lady Gaga singing the national anthem.

There’s an interesting strategy involved in making Super Bowl 50 available for live streaming. While CBS is expected to reach a record for Super Bowl viewership this year, they may not do well pulling in the younger viewers coveted by advertisers.

AdWeek has the details.

“While Super Bowl ratings have soared in the past decade, its 18-to-49 audience has remained relatively flat. According to Nielsen, that audience peaked with Fox’s 2011 game, which averaged 52.5 million in the demo. But it has hovered around the 50 million mark since 2008, with last year’s game drawing 49.7 million 18- to 49-year-old viewers.”

The report added that CBS isn’t too worried about ratings, at least not outwardly.

“[Breaking records] is more of an industry thing than anything else,” said Sean McManus, chairman of CBS Sports and executive producer of CBS’s Super Bowl 50 coverage. “Basically, it’s bragging rights, and if you don’t get it, it’s still going to be the most-watched telecast of the year.”

There is a bigger audience than just those looking to watch Peyton Manning and Cam Newton battle for the Super Bowl. The game also pulls in a huge audience both for the commercials and the halftime show, which this year features Beyonce.

This year’s Super Bowl could have an added audience given its possibly historic nature. All indications point toward Peyton Manning retiring after the game, giving the future Hall of Famer one last chance to win his second Super Bowl title. On the other side, MVP candidate Cam Newton is looking to complete Carolina’s almost-perfect season with a win.

“This year, more so than other years, you might have this amazing storybook ending, meaning Peyton Manning,” said Dan Donnelly, vice president and managing director for sports at SMG, in an interview with AdWeek. “So, if Denver pulls this out and he wins, I can’t even imagine what that rating and postgame rating would be.”

Fans unable to make it to a Super Bowl party or even a television for Super Bowl 50 will still have plenty of options to watch the big game live online through streaming video. Those with Apple TV, Android TV, or a Roku box can use the CBS Sports app to watch the Super Bowl. It is available for Android TV here, and the Roku here. Apple users can search for CBS Sports, Lifehacker noted.

The CBS Sports app also works for a variety of platforms and devices, including Windows 10, and both iPad and Android tablets and phones.

Those who want to watch Super Bowl 50 live online on traditional computers can click here for streaming video of the Carolina Panthers vs. Denver Broncos.

[Photo by Mike Windle/Getty Images]

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