Last night CBS attracted an average of 106.5 million viewers during its transmission of Super Bowl XLIV, which effectively made it the most watched broadcast program of all time. While the Super Bowl has always been a major broadcast event in the United States its average audience has been growing steadily at around 2.3% since 2000. Last night’s broadcast was the final push, that finally broke the 100 million viewer mark.

This super-sized audience has always commands high ad prices since it offers marketers unique access to a concentrated mass audience. CBS reported that prices floated between $2.5 and $3.0 million, although certain slots went higher. If an average of $30 million is assumed, the effective CPM last night would have been $28.17.

Since CPMs for global viewers during broadcast primetime float around $15, the Super Bowl CPM would be roughly double. This would also be roughly parallel to relationship between broadcast primetime and the Super Bowl within the Household CPM, as reported by the TV Bureau of Advertising.

This is the 100% price premium is the value given by the market towards being able to reach over a third of the U.S. population at exactly the same time. This unique opportunity affords a brand message to effectively become common culture within the span of 30 seconds. Now, whether or not an advertisers use this time wisely is another matter. You can be the judge; see all the spots from last night here at Ad Age.