Overtime Gives Fox Another $20 Million in Ad Revenue

New England Patriots fans weren’t the only ones cheering after their team’s stunning comeback Sunday night, as they tied the Falcons 28-28 sending the Super Bowl into overtime for the first time ever.

According to AdWeek, Fox had negotiated overtime ad spots with a handful of brands and was able to air four additional Super Bowl spots before Tom Brady led his team to a 34-28 victory in overtime. That added an estimated $20 million to the network’s Super Bowl ad revenue windfall, which was already going to be “the highest revenue day in Fox history,” Bruce Lefkowitz, evp ad sales, Fox Networks Group, told Adweek earlier this week.

The overtime period gave Fox an additional ad pod, in between the overtime coin toss and the beginning of play. Fox aired four spots in that pod: two spots that had aired earlier in the game (Hulu’s ad for The Handmaid’s Tale, the first time it bought an Super Bowl ad for an original series, and Sprint’s “Car” spot), and two new ads (for Proactiv and SoFi; both spots also ran during the postgame show).

Even though there had never been overtime in Super Bowl history, Fox had negotiated deals with a handful of brands to air spots in the event of extended play, according to sources.