What is the Rate for Super Bowl Car Commercials?

In 1995, the world was a simpler place. People conversed in person; we didn’t suffer from severe neck pain from excessive smartphone usage and all was well with the world.  However, Super Bowl commercials cost $1 million dollars.  Back then, that was an excruciating price to pay for :30 seconds of uninterrupted commercial bliss.  Fast forward to 2012, and you would see Volkswagen paying a whopping 3.5 million for the 30-second champion spot.  According to Forbes, this is the highest average ad price a network has ever charged for Super Bowl.

In the last decade in a half, the Super Bowl asking price has increased 5.7% annually.  Accordingly, in 13 years we could see pricing go up to $7 million.  However, even with the super high asking price, NBC was able to sell out all 70 ad slots by last Thanksgiving.  WOW. 

Last years Bowl had 111 million viewers, with advertisers paying upwards to $3 million per spot. So how do the networks afford it? According to Forbes: 

NBC will pay the league $603 million in rights fees this year. The $245 million that NBC will bring in from Super Bowl commercials (70 spots at $3.5 million a pop) will cover 41% of that payment. NBC’s Super Bowl advertising revenue also comprises 14% of the $1.81 billion it has to pay the NFL over a three-year period. FOX and CBS pay more for their right agreements: $720.3 million and $619.8 million, respectively. FOX brought in $195 million from last year’s Super Bowl and CBS generated $152 million the year before; those amount to 9% and 8% of each network’s respective three-year rights fees.

As the Super Bowl continues to increase, what does the future hold?  Only time will tell!