With four days to go until Super Bowl XLIX, NBC says it has finally sold its entire ad inventory, with 30-second spots going for $4.5 million.
“It has been a challenging ad sales marketplace,” said Seth Winter, ad sales executive VP for news and sports, noting that availability of spots went much later than previous years (Fox sold out its ad inventory more than a month in advance of last year’s Super Bowl). “This is not the easiest exercise I’ve been through.” Winter said there were about 70 units for sale overall.
Winter said that “a couple” spots still remain during the six-hour pregame coverage, which begins at noon ET. Winter said the open spots are during the early-afternoon portion; postgame inventory is also sold out.
“It’s a very satisfying day for us, because we have been able to maintain the premium pricing we set out to maintain before the game,” said Winter. The $4.5 million was the price that NBC had been seeking for the game. Fox garnered the same price for Super Bowl XLVIII.
Winter also said that NBC is poised to nearly triple the amount of digital revenue from the last time it aired the big game – Super Bowl XLVI in Feb. 2012 – up to “eight figures.” He said there were 18 advertisers on the digital side. “We have limited digital capacity… everyone who is on our digital platform is represented in or around the Super Bowl.”
As previously reported, this year’s Super Bowl will see 15 first-time sponsors – most of whom are newer digital businesses – as some longtime advertisers have dropped out, most notably in the auto category.
