Feb. 1 (Bloomberg) -- This weekend's Super Bowl, pitting the New York Giants against the undefeated New England Patriots, may draw the most U.S. television viewers in the 42-year history of the National Football League's championship game.

``When we look at the two teams, one is going for perfection and the other one is going to stop them from going for perfection,'' said Tom Ziangas, a senior vice president at Nielsen Sports. ``It looks to be a super Super Bowl.''

That's good news for advertisers such as Victoria's Secret and PepsiCo Inc., which are paying as much as a record $3 million for a 30-second spot during the Feb. 3 telecast on News Corp.'s Fox network. Fox may bring in $215 million in ad revenue from the Super Bowl, including pre- and post-game shows, said a person with knowledge of the sales.

The January 1996 Super Bowl, when the Dallas Cowboys beat the Pittsburgh Steelers 27-17, holds the record for most viewers, drawing an average of more than 94 million. That's based on how many people tune in each minute over the entire game.

``If the game remains competitive, you can approach those numbers if not surpass,'' Fox Sports President Ed Goren said in an interview. ``Because of the match-up, the tune-in at the beginning of the game would be higher than the average Super Bowl and then it's a matter of holding on to those people.''

If the Patriots win, they'll complete a perfect 19-0 season, the first undefeated championship run since the 1972 Miami Dolphins finished 17-0. The Giants enter the game with a league record of 10 straight victories on the road.

Mafia-Inspired

A Dec. 29 meeting between the Giants and Patriots was the most-watched regular-season NFL game in more than 12 years, drawing 34.5 million viewers on average. The Patriots won 38-35.

Having the Giants in the Super Bowl has the potential to attract more viewers because of the team's fan base in New York, the most populous U.S. city with more than 8.2 million inhabitants. The live nature of sports also attracts advertisers because fewer people record the game and skip through commercials compared with TV sitcoms or movies.

Advertisers compete during the game to make their commercials memorable and provide a reason for non-sports fans to tune in. This year's sponsors include German automaker Audi AG, Anheuser-Busch Cos., Toyota Motor Corp. and Procter & Gamble Co.

``You can reach 95 million viewers in one swoop,'' said Scott Keogh, the chief marketing officer of Audi of America in Auburn Hills, Michigan. ``The biggest piece for us is the lift it's going to give us on the Web site.''

Audi is advertising in the game for the first time in 17 years with a commercial that riffs on Francis Ford Coppola's film ``The Godfather'' and advertises its first mid-engine sports car. Audi's Web site, which typically attracts 26,000 to 30,000 hits a day, may get 750,000 to 1.2 million hits in the two days after the Super Bowl, Keogh said.

Big Apple

In pushing a new product during the game, Audi is following Apple Inc., which more than two decades ago used its ``1984'' ad to unveil the Macintosh computer. Advertisers also take advantage of the large audience to try new approaches, such as commercials with story lines that develop through the course of the game.

Singer Justin Timberlake will star in an ad for Pepsi's soft drink. A spot from Victoria's Secret, owned by Limited Brands Inc., features supermodel Adriana Lima as part of the lingerie brand's Valentine's Day marketing efforts. Victoria's Secret last ran a spot in the 1999 Super Bowl to publicize its Web site and a Webcast of its fashion show. That later drew a record of 1.5 million viewers days later and crashed the site.

The personalities in this Super Bowl may also attract attention. Patriots' quarterback Tom Brady, who dates model Gisele Bundchen, faces Eli Manning, whose older brother Peyton was named most valuable player in last year's championship game. The half-time show, marked in 2004 by the controversial exposure of Janet Jackson's breast during a performance with Timberlake, this year will feature singer Tom Petty.

Brady Versus Manning

``It truly is an event that goes beyond the two teams that are playing it,'' said Ziangas of Nielsen Sports, a New York-based researcher. ``Storylines, players, history, all these things collide into an uber-event.''

Advertiser interest has been heightened by the three-month Hollywood writers strike, which has deprived companies of fresh programming for their ads. Fox said on Jan. 29 that it had sold its final spot, the earliest for any of the five Super Bowls the network has carried, spokesman Lou D'Ermilio said.

News Corp. Class A shares, down 16 percent in the past year, rose 56 cents, or 3 percent, to $19.41 at 4:06 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading.

The presence of the Giants will probably draw more viewers than usual from New York, which makes up about 10 percent of the U.S. television audience, said Rick Gentile, a former CBS Sports executive. While there's a risk the West Coast audience may be turned off by the East Coast-dominated contest, its draw will ultimately depend on how compelling the game is, he said.

``It has a lot of things going for it,'' said Gentile, who directs the sports poll at Seton Hall University in South Orange, New Jersey. ``It will be among the most-watched games of all time.''

To contact the reporter on this story: Gillian Wee in New York at gwee3@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: February 1, 2008 16:11 EST