Fox Sells Out Super Bowl, Peak :30s Go For $7M+

• by Karlene Lukovitz  @KLmarketdaily, 7 hours ago

Fox has sold out all of its Super Bowl LVII ad inventory, Fox Sports announced this morning.

A few 30-second ads went for more than $7 million, and most went for between $6 million and $7 million, according to Mark Evans, Fox Sports executive vice president of ad sales.

Fox reported that 90% of inventory was sold out last summer, and 95% by September — a higher level in those early months than what was seen in previous seasons.

But “atypical” events — including rising inflation and the “implosion” of the cryptocurrency category following the FTX’s fiasco — held up the sale of the last 5% of inventory, Evans said. The actual sellout happened during the week of January 23, he reported.

Four cryptocurrency brands — FTX, Coinbase, Crypto.com and eTore — ran ads in last year’s Super Bowl, causing it to be dubbed the “Crypto Bowl.”

This year, two advertisers in the crypto category had already booked, and two were close to doing so, he said, but those deals fell apart after FTX’s founder was charged with defrauding investors and the company filed for bankruptcy in November, leaving no advertisers in that category.

Evans, who did not reveal the number of ads, said it was similar to the number in previous games.

Anheuser-Busch is again the biggest advertiser with three minutes of national time, but relinquished its game exclusive, opening the way for Diageo, Heineken, Remy Martin and Molson Coors to buy airtime this year.

Other dominant categories including packaged foods, movie studios and streaming services, automotive and tech.

The Super Bowl will also be iive-streamed on the Fox Sports website and the Fox Sports App.