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NBC Down to 10% of Super Bowl Spots

NBC has about 10%  - or eight to 10 ads - of its 67 Super Bowl spots left to sell, and says it is in active negotiations with about 12 potential advertisers.

Despite the fact that two major advertisers - General Motors and FedEx - have decided not to buy ads during the Feb. 1 game and that the recession has caused advertisers to pull back on their ad spend, NBC seems to be having little problem convincing advertisers to pony up $3 million per :30 spot, writes CNNMoney.com. Media buyers, however, are saying they believe there are more like 10-12 remaining spots, according to Mediaweek.

Still, even if NBC has a tough time selling the last few spots, the network is likely to break Fox’s record $186.3 million from last year’s game, said Dean DeBiase, CEO of TNS Media Intelligence, who predicts NBC could haul more than $200 million.

Returning advertisers include Coca Cola, PepsiCo (which has a lock on non-alcoholic beverage ads in the first half), Audi (which is running a :60 ad for the second year running), Hyundai, Bridgestone, GoDaddy.com, E*Trade, and Pedigree. Anheuser-Busch is running 4.5 minutes worth of spots, or one :30 spot more than last year, when 97.5 million people watched the game.

FedEx said it decided not to advertise during the Super Bowl because of the economy. “A Super Bowl ad buy is not where we should put dollars at this time although, in the past, the value of doing so for FedEx has been indisputable,” Steve Pacheco, managing director of advertising at FedEx, wrote in his blog.

GM, which used an animated :60 spot during the last Super Bowl, decided not to air an ad because of timing, the company says, claiming that there is no new vehicle launching to make a Super Bowl ad worth the price tag. However, when automakers asked Congress for a bailout, GM was reportedly “strongly advised” not to run a Super Bowl ad.