Fox has cracked the $8 million mark for a 30-second Super Bowl ad, selling at least 10 spots at that level, according to sources familiar with negotiations ahead of the February 9 game.
The average price of an ad is $7.5 million, reflecting the continued strength of live sports in an otherwise mixed TV ad marketplace. The Kansas City Chiefs will be gunning for an unprecedented third straight Super Bowl title at the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans, where they will take on the Philadelphia Eagles in a rematch of the 2023 game.
Momentum has been building for Fox Corp. as it heads toward the big game. Last November, during a quarterly earnings call, CEO Lachlan Murdoch declared Super Bowl inventory sold out “at record pricing.” At that time, pricing was believed to be north of $7 million but has surged higher in the intervening months.
Compared with the other media companies in the three-network Super Bowl rotation, Fox’s results will be lifted by the game. As with politics, which sent ad sales up 11% year-over-year to $1.33 billion in the quarter ended September 30, sports and in particular the NFL is a key ingredient. In 2023, when it last broadcast the game, Fox took in roughly $600 million, making $700 million a realistic target this year. Because the Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers went to overtime, CBS netted an extra ad haul, coming in at $695 million.
In an interview with Deadline, Fox Sports EVP of Sales Mark Evans declined to address specifics about pricing, but he said the game has extended a strong run in recent months for Fox, punctuated by college football and the Major League Baseball playoffs.
More than 10 ad units during the game have switched occupants, with some buyers in the upfront having to bow out. That turnover has helped bolster pricing.
Evans said the recent decision by State Farm to cancel its planned ad was the only one prompted by the L.A. wildfires or other current events.
Tech is a big category during the game, Evans said, with a lot more creative focused on AI, the topic du jour. Don’t expect any GoDaddy or political uproar, Evans said. “There aren’t many, or any, significantly controversial ads,” he said. There will be “a significant amount of celebrity,” with a lot of spots “leaning into comedy.”
Compared with some recent years, when social media and YouTube often see wide circulation of ads, fewer commercials or big names have been trumpeted in advance.
“It used to be typical that people held their creative private, but then it did overcorrect where most creative would be online and actively prompted,” Evans said. “There has been a little bit less of that this year. … less of the proactive pre-screening.”
Some brands, he said, “are doing unique and clever creative and it will have an afterlife.”
