NBC Sees $1.4B in Ad Sales for Super Bowl, Winter Games

NBC expects $1.4 billion in ad revenue from the Super Bowl and the Winter Olympics, the payoff for its huge investment in sports programming.

According to Bloomberg, the figure includes $900 million for the Olympics in South Korea, which start Feb. 9. Ad prices are running higher than the 2014 winter games in Sochi, Russia, NBC executives said Thursday on a conference call. Comcast Corp.’s entertainment division is charging more than $5 million for a 30-second spot during the Super Bowl, in line with the past couple of years.

Ratings for live sports, including the Olympics and pro football, have declined in an era when viewers have so many choices for entertainment, from Snapchat to YouTube. But they still let advertisers reach tens of millions of viewers at once, and networks compete fiercely for the rights to big games. NBC has the Olympics through 2032 as part of a $12 billion deal, and it’s one of three networks that will take turns carrying the Super Bowl through 2022.

Super Bowl advertisers haven’t expressed concern about ratings declines for regular-season NFL games, said Dan Lovinger, executive vice president for ad sales at NBC Sports Group, and are enthusiastic about the Feb. 4 telecast. The average audience for a regular season game declined 9.7 percent from 2016, according to Nielsen data.

“The game almost transcends the season,” Lovinger said. “It’s the only environment where viewers admit they look forward as much to the commercials as the content itself.”

NBC’s Super Bowl inventory isn’t sold out, though only a “a handful” spots are left. Automakers and Hollywood studios are two of the biggest advertisers this year. NBC is also selling digital-only advertising packages for the game for the first time.