Delivering big audiences will always be key for anyone wanting to make money from advertisers. If you can prove you can reach more people for less money, simple economics are invariably going to be in your favour. But as the mass audience disintegrates in time (tivo) and space (cyber), broadcasters are going to need to find many more Superbowls and Academy Award shows to deliver the big ratings.

These are the two events on the calender that are altered fundamentally if not watched live.

Of course, you can record the big game or the Oscars, but it’s not the same. (Even if you have managed to hide yourself in a communications black hole between the live broadcast and the time you get to it.) We may be on our own couches and in our own living rooms but there’s a common experience knowing that other people are doing just the same thing at just the same time. And of course when it’s live there’s always a possibility of the unexpected (like Grossman not throwing an interception).

It may be a couple years ago now, but Janet Jackson’s boob, mistake or otherwise, probably did more for the Superbowl brand than any particular game could. It did more for broadcast TV than a host of American Idol hits. It said here is something you cannot record, or download or watch later on utube. It said here is something that you have to experience live to get the maximum amount of shock/surprise/delight.

It’s a pity neither of Prince’s exotic dancers revealed their own purple ones.