Super Bowl commercials nearly sold out: NBC

The troubles facing the NFL over the past season — such as national anthem protests, injuries and declining TV ratings — have not deterred advertising demand for NBC’s Feb. 4 telecast of Super Bowl LII.

Dan Lovinger, executive vicepresident of advertising sales for NBC Sports, said on a conference call that the network expects to take in $500 million US in ad revenue on Super Bowl Sunday, about the same as last year’s event.

The figure, which includes pregame festivities, the contest itself, post-game and a special airing of the hit NBC drama series This Is Us, is roughly equivalent to what the network takes in from its daily morning program Today over an entire year.

Lovinger said there were fewer than 10 spots available in the Super Bowl LII as of Friday.

He said the average price was “north of $5 million [US]” for a 30-second unit, in line with the pricing in recent years. The last time NBC had the game in 2015, advertisers paid an average of $4.5 million per spot.

“All we’ve seen is enthusiasm for the Super Bowl,” Lovinger said. “The game itself almost transcends the season.”

The audience level for the Super Bowl has always towered over the rest of television, delivering 106 million viewers or more since 2010.

Last year, the New England Patriots’ stunning comeback win over the Atlanta Falcons had an average audience of 111.3 million viewers for Fox, making the game the fifth-most--watched TV event of all time, according to Nielsen.

The game’s massive number stands out even more as overall ratings for live TV viewing steadily decline, as more people watch scripted shows through online and on-demand platforms.

Live events that draw big numbers have become more valuable for advertisers, who want their commercials to be seen on the day they air.

“There just aren’t a lot of places you can find big ratings in a live environment, so advertisers do clamour to those types of opportunities,” Lovinger said.

The Super Bowl includes the added attraction of big-budget and often star-studded commercials that people tune in to watch.

Running commentary and sharing of spots on social media have expanded the reach of the high-priced commercials beyond the telecast. Lovinger said that advertiser demand has also been strong for NBC’s telecasts of the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, from Feb. 9 -25.

He projected a $900-million take in ad revenue, which he said would be a record for a Winter Olympics.

Lovinger said the network is projecting an audience “close” to the 21.4 million viewers who tuned in each night to the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.

But the viewers watching NBC’s telecasts on streaming devices will be figured into advertising deals as well, as the network has seen rapid growth of online viewing in recent Olympics.

During the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio, 30 per cent of the audience watched on internet-connected televisions.