Earlier this month, we told you that CBS was looking to charge $5 million per 30 second ad for Super Bowl 50. Well, CBS may be looking at $6 million. And consider that NBC was getting as much as $4.5 million per spot for Super Bowl XLIX, CBS getting $6 million would be a big jump.
CBS CEO Les Moonves told investors at a recent earnings conference call that getting $6 million per 30 second spot would not be unrealistic, “It certainly won’t hurt our sales for next year, $5 million to $6 million for a 30-second spot sounds pretty good to me.”
Considering the last time CBS aired the Super Bowl in 2013, it received an average of $3.8 million per ad and compared to $6 million, that seems like pocket change.
When asked about digital ads and money going to platforms like Facebook, Moonves scoffed saying they don’t have the reach of broadcast television, “Look, NBC got $4.5 million for a 30-second spot in the Super Bowl. We’re going to get north of $5 million. Those dollars aren’t going to digital. They realize they want to get to 120 million people at once and that’s why broadcast will always be solid.”
Moonves said the ad market which had been sluggish in the first quarter of the last fiscal year improved and CBS had not seen the problems that plagued cable ad sales all of last year. He said, “Our advertising picture is helped by a broadcast marketplace that has been steadily improving week after week since the end of the first quarter.”
So with Mooves being bullish on the ad market, it looks like CBS will look to charge as much as $6 million, but with advertisers like Budweiser, Coke and Pepsi returning next year, those companies will likely see discounts and won’t have to pay the full price.
However, there will be those first-time advertisers looking to make a splash for their companies who will pony up and pay the $6 million. We’ll see what happens as we get closer to February 7, 2016.
[Business Insider]
