Despite an upswing in popularity from extreme sports, the more traditional pursuits like The Olympics and football aren't going to sweat ad revenue at the upfront market.
After all, the most
popular show on television every year is still the Super Bowl, which gets a rating and share in every demographic that any other show would love to have but won't get. The recently concluded NCAA
basketball tournament draw a big premium and next year marks the Summer Olympics, which will overtake all NBC properties and once again do Gold Medal ratings.
Steve Kalb, VP/director of national
broadcast at Mullen, said beyond the Super Bowl, there are several sporting events that garner high CPMs. The NCAA Final Four and Championships do, as well as golfing tournaments. And the Olympics
draw upscale demographics and the so-called light viewers, people who don't necessarily watch a lot of broadcast TV but want to sample it, Kalb said. For advertisers, there are all those viewers plus
the cachet that goes along with associating with the Olympics.
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For the National Football League, the key to viewers' and advertisers' hearts is the excitement and tradition of the sport.
"Football is America's passion. It has to do with the sport and the strength of the NFL, which is presenting the best of the sport and we do it in a system of competitive excellence," said Greg
Aiello, VP of public relations at the NFL.
Football viewership - on ABC, CBS, ESPN and Fox - has surged in the past year, averaging 14.4 million viewers per game (up 5%), a 9.5 rating/19 share (up
4%) and a 15% increase to a 7.8 rating in its key demographic of men 18-34. The playoffs showed similar increases, including a 14.8 rating in the men 18-34 demographic, up 16%. There were 137.7
million total viewers for the Super Bowl, up 5% from 131.7 million a year ago. The 40.7/61 household rating was also higher than last year's.
Aiello said the overall package - including
sponsorships and advertising - offers tremendous value to advertisers and viewers and resonates with the NFL's key demographic. But it also resonates with others, too. A recent story showed more women
watch the Super Bowl than the Academy Awards.
The NFL has changed its programming playbook in the past few years, too, scheduling a Thursday night game for the first time in its history last
season. Aiello said that will return again this year. And primetime playoff games, which were started two years ago, were a big hit, too.
Aiello said the NFL isn't suffering from a younger
generation's participation in action sports, saying there's plenty of room for both in the marketplace.
"We don't feel threatened by that in any way. We're in such a unique position in terms of the
mass popularity of our game. Young people don't choose to be a fan of any one thing. You can enjoy extreme sports and the snow sports and be a fan of the NFL, too. It's not one or the other," Aiello
said.