The NFL may be experiencing lower ratings during the past couple of seasons, but it doesn’t mean that advertisers are abandoning the sport for other programs. According to Variety, the programs that command the highest prices are NFL packages. And in most cases, the ad rates are higher for the 2017 season than last.
- For Sunday Night Football, NBC is commanding a price of over $700,000 per 30 second spot and that’s up 12% from $650,000 last season.
- NBC is asking a price of just over $524,000 for its five-game Thursday Night Football package, up 3.7% from $505K last season.
- CBS is next with its just-completed TNF package with a $496,000 pricetag down 6.4% from just under $530,000 last year.
- And ESPN’s Monday Night Football seeks $385,000 for a 30-second ad, up 3.6% from $372,000 last season.
But beating all of those is a 30-second ad on the Sunday afternoon NFL on Fox, which costs advertisers $759,000.
The top non-football program is AMC’s The Walking Dead, which has a $415,000 asking price per 30-second spot.But that’s down 11.8% from 2016.
So while the NFL sees lower viewership, the advertisers are still ponying up for the NFL in primetime and are gladly paying the networks.
Here are the top shows as far as asking price is concerned.

Football still brings eyeballs to the TV screen and advertisers are willing to meet the networks’ demands, provided that the games can provide the necessary bang for the buck.
[Variety]