Super Bowl, 'Survivor II' Bring in Record Ad Haul
N E W Y O R K, Jan. 26 -- Set aside recession fears, shrinking advertising budgets and the demise of dot-coms — on Sunday, CBS expects the biggest one-day revenue haul in TV history.
The Viacom-owned broadcast network says it will rake in $150 million for the broadcast of Super Bowl XXXV, expected to be the year's most watched television show.
But the NFL championship game is not the only blockbuster airing on the network that day. Following the game will be the debut of Survivor II: the Australian Outback. Nine advertisers have signed on as exclusive sponsors of the 14-week Survivor series, including some Super Bowl advertisers.
According to the network, that means viewers will stay glued to their chairs late in the game regardless of what's happening on the field, as they wait for the start of the Survivor sequel. That scenario helped bolster the network's negotiations on ad rates for the game's fourth quarter and the post-game show.
CBS insiders said the network managed to get an average of$2.3 million for the 60 half-minute ads in the game, up 4.5 percentfrom the record $2.2 million average Walt Disney Co.'s ABC claimed a year ago. By comparison, last Sunday's ads on the top-rated CBS show, 60 Minutes, seen in 13 million households, took in only roughly a tenth of the Super Bowl rate, according to a network official.
"In the fragmented [media] universe, the highest rated events are increasingly desirable to advertisers," says Dana McClintock, the network's vice president for advertising.
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