There are five months until Super Bowl XLVI, but most of the 63 slots have already been filled. Seth Winter, senior vice president of NBC Sports Group Sales & Marketing, says that only a handful remain, perhaps as low as six.
Amazingly, this is coming at a time when NBC has actually raised the bar on prices. While Fox asked for $3 million per Super Bowl spot a year ago, NBC has increased it to $3.5 million.
“We originally set a target of $3.5 million. That was our asking price in the market,” Winter said. “But as we ventured into the market with the Super Bowl, we were always look for broader commitments across our sports assets. We don’t just sell Super Bowl positions, so depending on what other buys the clients made, the final price of an individual spot is a function of these other commitments.”
Each Super Bowl unit has been attached to another NBC Sports offering, prominently the 17-day 2012 Summer Olympics. Same as last year, automotive spend is taking up a large chunk of this advertising spend.
“You will see the same strength in auto this year that you did last year,” Winter said. “I can literally count on the fingers of one hand the number of car advertisers who won’t be back.”
“We are very well sold throughout the day,” he added. “As you know, there are people who for whatever reason do not buy the Super Bowl but want to be involved in the day. Those clients are buying category exclusiveness and [marquee] sponsorships in the programming leading up to the game.”
The more near term has seen NBC nearly sold out of its Sunday Night Football lineup. NBC last season averaged 21.2 million viewers per SNF broadcast “We are extraordinarily well sold in the regular season, and while the season hasn’t even started yet, we’ve already exceeded last year’s final revenue tally,” Winter said. “That in itself should speak to the increasingly healthy NFL marketplace.”
