As reported today by Street & Smith's Sports Business Journal, and as summarized in this piece by MediaBistro.com's new online sports media publication, SportsNewser, the NFL's 2010-11 broadcast advertising sales, including spots for all regular-season games televised across the league's five authorized broadcast outlets (i.e., CBS, NBC, ESPN, FOX, and NFL Network) and super-expensive slots for Super Bowl XLV, are nearly sold out -- even though the season does not officially begin until Thursday, September 9.
Considering the lingering effects of the recession on all advertising forms, and the dramatic and widely-reported reductions in sports marketing expenditures over the past 24 months, this is unprecedented news, even for a major sports league as the NFL, long regarded as the most prominent and successful marketing juggernaut in global professional sports.
To date, sales executives at CBS, NBC, ESPN and NFL Network all state that their respective ad inventories are at least 90% sold for the season. FOX Sports verified its regular-season business is more than 95 percent sold, an increase of over 20 percent above last year’s pace, when networks were selling their NFL games in the middle of the worst recession in generations.
Much of the advanced sales have been attributed to the networks' early efforts to move inventory, and to the resurgence of automotive manufacturers, many of which dramatically cut, or altogether elminated, their broadcast advertising budgets in 2009. According to Neil Mulcahy, FOX’s executive vice president of sports sales, "Sales levels heading into this season, led by a resurgent auto category, have exceeded our best expectations. In addition to autos, we’ve seen year-to-year growth in almost every category we do business with."
To date, sales executives at CBS, NBC, ESPN and NFL Network all state that their respective ad inventories are at least 90% sold for the season. FOX Sports verified its regular-season business is more than 95 percent sold, an increase of over 20 percent above last year’s pace, when networks were selling their NFL games in the middle of the worst recession in generations.
Much of the advanced sales have been attributed to the networks' early efforts to move inventory, and to the resurgence of automotive manufacturers, many of which dramatically cut, or altogether elminated, their broadcast advertising budgets in 2009. According to Neil Mulcahy, FOX’s executive vice president of sports sales, "Sales levels heading into this season, led by a resurgent auto category, have exceeded our best expectations. In addition to autos, we’ve seen year-to-year growth in almost every category we do business with."
Even more impressively, FOX Sports, according to sources, will enter the 2010 season with nearly all of its ad inventory already sold for Super Bowl XLV, to be played in Cowboys Stadium for the first time on February 6, 2011. Most of the remaining Super Bowl spots are in the fourth quarter. What makes this so unbelievable? FOX Sports is securing approximately $3 million for a stand-alone 30-second spot, though most of the spots are sold as larger packages. While much is made each year about the scope and expense of new ads debuting during the Super Bowl broadcast, it is unfathomable to think that this many brands are making such large-scale commitments more than six months out, and without any visibility whatsoever as to which teams (and their DMA markets) will be represented in the big game. Wow.
The broader implication of all this is best summarized by Ed Erhardt, president of customer marketing and sales at ESPN:
The broader implication of all this is best summarized by Ed Erhardt, president of customer marketing and sales at ESPN:
“The story to me is that the NFL is the No. 1 entertainment brand in the country. Advertisers are going to go where there’s an audience and passion and live viewing, and NFL and college football have that.”
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