The Super Bowl Was Just a Trailer for Taylor Swift Clips

185 million peak streams for halftime. The actual game pulled 132 million viewers, which is adorable in a “grandpa still pays for cable” kind of way.

Super Bowl LX was supposedly the big event, but the halftime show became the real product: a globally synchronized feed of people hunting for the one 12-second moment they can repost with a caption like “I’m shaking.” CBS aired the game. The internet harvested it.

Networks will brag about “record audiences” like they’re still selling televisions and not selling your attention to brands like it’s loose copper wire. Advertisers paid for the privilege of being background noise while 185 million screens collectively said, “Cool, now show me the part with Taylor.”

Meanwhile… every platform got richer off the same content without paying to produce the thing. CBS gets the risk and the broadcast bill. TikTok, X, YouTube, Instagram, and every sports account with a ring light gets the engagement, the ad dollars, and the “community.”

And you? You’re paying for it twice — once through subscriptions and cable bundles you forgot you have, and again through higher prices because every brand now has to buy ads in the game and also pay the “please don’t ignore us online” tax.