Sports

NBC Expects Record Revenue From Super Bowl Ad Sales

REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

Sebastian Obando Contributor
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NBC expects to set a record for single-day revenue generated by one company during Super Bowl LII, according to executive vice president of ad sales Dan Lovinger.

A 30-second slot in this year’s Super Bowl will cost advertisers $5 million, according to Business Insider, compared to 10 years ago, where a 30-second slot in the Super Bowl cost advertisers approximately $3 million.

Due to these prices, Lovinger projects NBC to make $500 million in ad sales Sunday. That would set a new record for the amount of revenue generated in a single day by one company.

In other words, while NFL viewership is declining, ad revenue continues to rise. According to Nielsen data, total viewership during the 2017 season dipped approximately 10 percent from last year. Additionally, the last two Super Bowls have lost viewers. Still, according to data from market research firm Standard Media Index, the cost for a 30-second commercial during the 2017 regular season increased 1.1 percent to $473,775.

111 million viewers tuned in to the 2017 Super Bowl, meaning each $1 spent reached nearly 22 viewers. On the other hand, normal national network ads during a popular show delivers to 2 to 7 million viewers, according to Forbes, and at $200,000 to $500,000 per 30 second slots for these shows, each $1 spent reaches around 14 viewers, less than a Super Bowl commercial. Therefore, advertisers still see increasing value in purchasing Super Bowl commercials.

In addition, Super Bowl commercials get more views on top of the original 30 second airtime. The Squarespace commercial from the 2017 Super Bowl below has over four million plays on YouTube.

“While it’s definitely an investment, the Super Bowl is a unique opportunity in that people are actually watching the event specifically to see the ads,” Squarespace CEO Anthony Casalena told Business Insider last year. “The audience is huge, and it gives us the chance to do more creatively than we would normally do throughout the year.”

Below are three commercials from the past three Super Bowls, all combining for a worth of over $200 million in ad revenue for the NFL.