NBC Sports announced Friday evening that it had sold all of the commercials for Super Bowl LII, which will be played Sunday.
The sellout comes amid some signs that NFL football is not the draw it has been. Ratings were down this season and ad revenues were slightly lower as well. NBC and CBS lowered the bids for the league’s Thursday-night package of games, with analysts saying those games were big money losers for those networks. Fox outbid CBS and NBC for the whole 11-game Thursday package.
NBC insisted the Super Bowl, the year’s highest rated event, remained powerful.
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“Super Bowl LII is sold out. We booked record revenue, and advertiser enthusiasm for the game is at an all-time high,” said Dan Lovinger, executive VP, NBC Sports Group, in a statement.
NBC has said it was getting an average of more than $5 million per 30-second spot.
Lovinger had earlier predicted that this Super Bowl Sunday would set a single-day record for media sold, breaking a record set last year.
NBC will be following up the Super Bowl with the Winter Olympics from South Korea, starting Feb. 8.
NBC expects ad sales to top $900 million for the Olympics and $1.4 billion for the two big February sports events.
