With the New England Patriots getting ready to tackle the Atlanta Falcons in the Super Bowl, Verizon has grabbed top position among advertisers on NFL telecasts, according to iSpot.TV.
In a season blitzed by lower ratings, TV ad revenue rose to $4.2 billion from $4.08 billion a year ago for the regular season plus the playoffs—not including the Super Bowl to be broadcast by Fox on Feb. 5—according to iSpot, which includes CBS, NBC, Fox, ESPN, NFL Network, ABC and ESPN Deportes in its calculations.
Verizon spent an estimated $185.4 million, up 39.3% from the 2015 season.
Also spending more than $100 million on NFL football was Geico, which finished at $100.4 million, up 20.7% from 2015.
Most of the other big spenders also increased the NFL buys.
Chevrolet was up 11.2% to $99.5 million; Apple iPhone was up 84.9% to $97.8 million; Toyota was up to $96.7 million; Ford was down 10.3% to $95.1 million; Samsung Mobile was up 4.9% to $86.3 million; Southwest Airlines was down 8.3% to $76.5 million; Subway was up 4.2% to $73.7 million; and Walmart was up 62.2% to $65.2 million.
Auto was the biggest spending category, but it was down 1.2% to $889.3 billion.
Number two was wireless, up 27.5% to $338.5 million. Other big categories included insurance, up 17.8% to $269.8 million; fast food, down 4.7% to $264 million; and mobile devices, up 32.9% to $232.9 million.
Beer was down and banks and credit cards jumped 30%.
