Fox sells out Super Bowl ad inventory; Hollywood presence diminished
There will be plenty of cars and beer being hawked in the Super Bowl but fewer Hollywood movies.
Fox, which has the rights to this season’s NFL championship, said it has sold all the commercial inventory for the game. Although Fox won’t say how much it got for 30-second spots, Madison Avenue sources said the average price was around $4 million and some went for as much as $4.5 million.
The Super Bowl is the most-watched television event in the United States. Last February’s game between the Baltimore Ravens and the San Francisco 49ers on CBS averaged more than 108 million viewers, according to Nielsen.
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There are typically around 65 spots in the Super Bowl. The most expensive commercials tend to be at the very start of the game. This year’s game is being played in MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, and Bruno Mars is the halftime performer.
The usual suspects -- Anheuser-Busch and Pepsi Co. -- will again have a big presence in the big game. General Motors, which skipped last year’s Super Bowl, is also expected to be back.
However, Hollywood, which often uses the Super Bowl to promote upcoming blockbusters, will have a diminished presence, according to Neil Mulcahy, executive vice president of sales for Fox Sports Media Group.
“Hollywood is probably not as well represented as they have been in the past,” Mulcahy said.
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Fox is also live-streaming the game. Although many of the advertisers in the broadcast will also appear online, Fox is still selling spots for the webcast, said Marla Newman, senior vice president of Fox Sports Digital Advertising Sales.
Mulcahy said the network still has a fair amount of inventory in the pre-game and post-game shows as well as on Fox Sports 1, the cable sports channel Fox launched this year.
There are also a handful of commercials available for Fox’s coverage of the National Football Conference championship game, which typically draws a big audience. Commercials for that game are going for north of $1.5 million.
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Twitter: @JBFlint
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