Super Bowl ads cost $5M, demand strong despite NFL ratings drop: Report
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Advertisers are still paying top dollar for Super Bowl advertisements despite two straight seasons of NFL viewership declines, according to a high-level executive at the host network for this year’s championship game.
A 30-second ad during NBC’s Super Bowl telecast on Feb. 4 is selling for “north of $5 million,” NBC Sports advertising sales chief Dan Lovinger said during a conference call on Thursday, according to the Los Angeles Times. Lovinger added that there are less than 10 ad spots still available for purchase, about one month from kickoff.
The $5 million price tag is roughly in line with Fox’s haul per advertisement during last year’s championship game, and significantly higher than the $4.5 million per 30-second spot that advertisers paid when NBC last aired the Super Bowl in 2015. The cost of Super Bowl advertisements has more than doubled since 2007.
Advertiser demand for this year’s game appears strong even as the NFL contends with an unprecedented television audience drain. NFL ratings dropped 9.7% to roughly 14.9 million viewers per contest during the 2017 season – an even steeper decline than the year before, when ratings fell 8%, according to Nielsen.
Still, the Super Bowl commands an unmatched audience each year and remains the most-watched broadcast annually. Every game since 2010 has drawn at least 106 million viewers.