The season hasn’t started yet, but the TV networks are already seeing once again that it’s good to be in business with the NFL.
Every network that shows NFL games -- NBC, CBS, FOX and ESPN -- is seeing record ad sales for the coming season, Sports Business Journal reports.
Some in the industry didn’t think that would be the case, for a few reasons: DraftKings and FanDuel, two of last year’s top football advertisers, have scaled way back. Some advertisers that target sports fans have already spent a large portion of their advertising budgets on the Summer Olympics. It’s a presidential election year, which may draw some attention away from the NFL. Cord cutting has affected the entire television industry. And issues ranging from brain injuries to domestic violence have caused the NFL to take a great deal of criticism.
But car companies, restaurants, insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies have spent even more for commercial time on NFL games than ever before. Networks typically charge from $300,000 to $700,000 for a 30-second commercial during an NFL game.
“The NFL is still that live appointment television that delivers a mass audience,” Seth Winter, NBC Sports Group’s executive vice president of sales and marketing, told Sports Business Journal. “The advertisers know that predictability and scale are the two most important things when they invest their media dollars.”
NFL games are the most popular programming on American television. As long as that’s the case, advertisers will spend a pretty penny to put their products in front of NFL viewers.
