With the economy making some companies hesitant to spend $3 million for a 30-second advertisement, NBC has had to sell some of its Super Bowl ads at a lower price.
In a conference call yesterday, NBC Sports Chairman Dick Ebersol told reporters that NBC has four spots left open for its coverage of Sunday’s Super Bowl XLIII. As recently as Friday, the network had “8-10 spots available.”
Overall, NBC has been selling those ads at a lower rate than initially announced. Bloomberg reports that NBC “sold most of its Super Bowl ads for less than it planned to charge. … NBC sold 12 spots for the Feb. 1 game for $3 million each and others in the ‘high 2 millions.'” One report has NBC selling “later spots [for] as low as $2.8 million“, which is still higher than the $2.7 million FOX charged for ads last year. NBC has been offering “some advertisers … reduced rates for making bulk purchases.”
Though NBC has struggled selling ads in recent months, the network is still expected to generate close to $200 million in ad revenue from Super Bowl XLIII, compared to approximately $186 million for FOX last year.
