Last night's Super Bowl may have been the most watched telecast ever, according to preliminary data compiled by Nielsen Media Research.

Ratings for the contest between the New York Giants and New England Patriots were up 9% from last year. Figures for the number of viewers weren't immediately available from Nielsen. The most watched program of all time was the 1983 finale of "M-A-S-H." Until now, the most-watched Super Bowl was in 1996 when the Dallas Cowboys defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Shares of News Corp (NYSE: NWS), whose Fox Network broadcast last night's game, are down 18% over the past year as Wall Street worried that Rupert Murdoch's media empire would be hurt by a slowdown in advertising spending and the Hollywod writers' strike.

Far away from prying television cameras, News Corp (NYSE: NWS) Chief Executive Rupert Murdoch and NFL honcho Roger Goodell probably hooted and jumped for joy when the New York Giants and New England Patriots made it into the Super Bowl. Maybe they made "ka-ching!" noises or exchanged high-fives with their underlings.

They couldn't have asked for a better outcome if they had scripted it. There are so many compelling story lines, including whether the Patriots will be the first undefeated NFL team in more than 30 years. The New York -- as in the top media market -- Giants are no slouch for drama either. Who would have thought that Indianapolis Colts quarterback and ubiquitous pitchman Peyton Manning would be watching brother Eli lead the Giants in the sports spectacle to end all sports spectacles.

All this is a huge plus for News Corp's Fox network. A San Diego-Green Bay game --- which would have been great --- wouldn't have drawn the ratings the network needed to meet its guarantees to advertisers. TV commercials are sold based on ratings guarantees. When the programs don't meet the targets, the networks have to "make good" by giving away commercial time on other programs.

The one problem for Fox may be the Super Bowl game itself, which have at times been blowouts. This one won't be much different. Sorry Giants fans, the Patriots are going to go undefeated. News Corp shareholders are probably hoping that the game is at least interesting enough for people to watch the $1 million commercials.

Over the past few weeks we heard a lot of discussion over this year's Super Bowl and the massive $2.6 million CBS pulled in for its 30 second commercials aired during the game. Now that the game has come and gone, thoughts of commercial-related Super Bowl revenue will be put on the back burner for another year,

That is unless you are Peyton Manning, who will wind up being the real advertising winner this year.

According to a report on Bloomberg.com, the Davie-Brown index, which ranks celebrities by their ability to influence product sales, showed that Manning had a 74% awareness among all U.S. consumers. Just before the Super Bowl the star quarterback, who already has quite a few high dollar advertising deals, was at 68%.