Editors' pick: Originally published Feb. 6.

Bob Kraft's New England Patriots aren't the only company celebrating Sunday's Super Bowl result. 21st Century Fox (FOXA) - Get Report was also a big winner.

Sunday's wild and thrilling Super Bowl, which the Patriots won in overtime against the Atlanta Falcons, posted an average 48.8 household rating and a 72 share, according to Nielsen Media Research. Total viewers was 111.3 million, just a tad lower than the 114.4 million that watched the Patriots win the Super Bowl in 2015.

It remains the country's largest single television event. All told, 70% of the country tuned into the game, and not just to see the singer Lady Gaga descend from the stars at halftime.

Fox was quick to tout, in an emailed statement, that viewing was 3% higher than the audience that watched last year's much-less-exciting affair won by the Denver Broncos over a punchless group of Carolina Panthers. Total viewership is particularly difficult for the Super Bowl given that viewing often involves large groups of people congregating in bars, restaurants and homes.

Shares of Fox were off 0.6%, or 19 cents, to $31.21 on Monday, shaving its 2017 advance to 11.4%; in comparison, the S&P 500 index has gained about 2.5% this year.

Fox already was expected to bring in 10% more in advertising sales than the roughly $400 million that CBS (CBS) - Get Report received a year ago for the Broncos-Panthers tilt, according to a forecast from Wedbush media analyst James Dix.

With the Super Bowl going into overtime for the first time in its 51-year history, though, AdWeek guessed that Fox probably picked up another $20 million in advertising revenue, using a back-of-the-envelope estimate of the four commercials at roughly $5 million per ad that played before Patriots running back James White's winning touchdown. Fox declined to comment on the estimate.

Viewer interest in the game noticeably grew as the Patriots mounted their extraordinary comeback. No team had ever won a Super Bowl after trailing by more than 10 points until the Patriots rattled off 31 straight points, erasing the Falcons' 28-3 third-quarter lead and sending the city of Atlanta into a collective depression.

The TV audience began in the early evening with a 43.5 household rating and a 69 share at the 6:30 p.m. EST kickoff but peaked with a 52.1 household rating and a 74 share as regulation ended in a tie and the Patriots won in overtime during the 10 to 10:30 p.m. time slot.

For Fox, the Super Bowl should help to mitigate a patchy football season. Before the national elections on Nov. 8, the audience viewing NFL games in September, October and the first week of November averaged 15.5 million, a steep 14% decline from the same period in 2015.

After the election, ratings picked up somewhat, helped by better matchups and the usual late run for a spot in the playoffs. Nonetheless, for games played in weeks 10 through 17, viewership remained down 1% compared with the same period in 2015. Average viewing per game was 17.6 million.

Still, Fox also hosted a World Series in October that proved equally thrilling to Sunday's game; the Chicago Cubs' victory, ending 107 years of futility, is expected to help boost earnings at the Fox broadcast network for the December quarter some 16% over 2015's results, adjusted for some costs, UBS media analyst Doug Mitchelson said in an investor note. Of course, the uptick in earnings also was due to political spending in the presidential race.

When Fox reports its earnings for the quarter after the close of trading Monday, analysts will be watching to see whether the company exceeds a consensus earnings estimate, according to FactSet, of 49 cents per share, or $902 million in net income, on revenue of $7.7 billion.