Super Bowl LIX is still days away, but someone has already scored a key Big Game touchdown.
Fox Corporation reportedly sold over 10 commercial spots during its broadcast of the NFL championship between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles on February 9, for over $8 million each. This is a new record price for Super Bowl advertising, reflecting the increased significance of this event to Madison Avenue in the era of streaming services.
Mark Evans, executive vice president of sales at Fox Sports, notes that “the Super Bowl is unique because it offers an opportunity to reach a massive audience in a legitimate and impactful way through advertising.” There’s nothing quite like it.
Recently, there was a stretch where the Super Bowl experienced a less productive phase, with advertisers holding the advantage. At times, selling all the advertising spots wouldn’t be completed until just before the game started. The NFL expanded their regular-season ad inventory by striking deals with CBS and later NBC to broadcast “Thursday Night Football.” This meant that advertisers had an abundance of affordable commercial time during the NFL season, allowing them to air more ads for a lower cost.
Due to streaming services revolutionizing television’s financial structure as suggested by Evans, there are diminishing opportunities for both large and small marketers to reach massive audiences simultaneously who are consuming content at the same time. Consequently, a significant portion of TV advertisers are shifting funds they previously allocated for prime-time shows on cable, and even some on broadcast, as stated by Evans, and are instead directing those resources towards sports. As he notes, the NFL has profited from this trend.
Initially aiming for approximately $7 million per half-minute during Super Bowl LIX, Fox had already sold most of its ad slots by August. Interestingly, demand persisted even after Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch declared on the company’s third quarter investor call that all ads were sold out. Moreover, a group of sponsors, such as State Farm Insurance, requested to be released from their contracts due to the California wildfires, according to sources. However, Fox managed to resell these slots at higher prices because of the high demand. This renewed activity might have contributed to some of the deals exceeding $8 million.
The cost of ads aired during the Super Bowl broadcast has significantly increased. For instance, a 30-second spot during Fox’s late pre-game coverage is reportedly going for as high as $4.5 million, which was previously only $2 million. Similarly, a 30-second ad in Fox’s post-game coverage could cost around $4 million, compared to between $2.5 million and $3 million earlier.
In the Super Bowl broadcast of 2023, Fox raked in approximately $600 million in advertising income from both the primary game and related programming.
It has been decided that Fox can insert additional advertisements into the main event of the Super Bowl. The NFL, which holds the authority to determine the number of commercial breaks and ads during the Super Bowl, consented to this arrangement, allowing for more than five extra commercials. These additional commercials may appear at various points throughout the game, such as after a timeout, if a player is injured, or following an unforeseen interruption in play. It’s been reported that Fox and the NFL will share the revenue generated from these advertisements, based on information provided by someone involved in the negotiations.
The commercials appear during what the NFL refers to as “flex pods,” according to Mike North, the league’s vice president of broadcast planning. These pauses were designed primarily to reduce excessive interruptions during the game, he explains. Essentially, they provide an opportunity to make use of idle time. If everything goes well, you might reach the fourth quarter and only have a break if it’s the two-minute warning, he adds. In such cases, the only other pause would be during the two-minute warning. This way, we can focus more on football and let the game progress with uninterrupted fast-paced action and thrill.
2025’s game will be joined by several advertisers such as Anheuser-Busch InBev, PepsiCo, Ferrara Candy Co.’s Nerds, Georgia-Pacific’s Angel Soft, Squarespace, and Stellantis. Fox’s Evans predicts that there may be fewer car manufacturers participating this year, as well as potentially fewer film studios and streaming platforms.
The luck of the Fox network with the Super Bowl might persist. NBCUniversal plans to air this event in 2026 and could potentially offer bundles that include the Super Bowl, the Winter Olympics, and the NBA All-Star Game. According to Evans, there’s no sign of it slowing down any time soon.
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2025-01-29 16:19