NFL Regular-Season Ad Unit Pricing Up Nearly 9%

NFL regular-season games -- from September to November -- witnessed a nearly 9% increase in 30-second commercial unit rates, according to Standard Media Index.

In addition, the NFL overall had 10% higher TV advertising revenue during that period.

SMI did not offer up a total dollar figure here. SMI data comes from raw invoices from five of the seven major media agency holding groups.

Another recent estimate shows that for the entire 2019 regular season -- Sept. 5 through Dec. 29 --  NFL TV networks pulled in a collective $4.48 billion in TV advertising, according to iSpot.tv -- up 14% from the year before.

SMI says revenue from NFL games accounted for 17% of all season-to-date (September to November) TV ad revenue across all TV broadcast network programming on major linear channels. It also says 70% of Fox’s overall national ad revenue during the current broadcast year comes from NFL programming.

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Looking at individual NFL programs, NBC had a 4.7% increase in 30-second unit pricing from September to November over the same period a year before, to average $617,920.

Fox’s combined Sunday afternoon games and its “Thursday Night Football” unit pricing grew 13.6% -- with the latter posting the strongest increases, according to media executives.

Individually, Fox’s Sunday afternoon games averaged $596,731, with “Thursday Night Football” growing to $501,464. CBS’s Sunday afternoon games were up 7.4% to $466,853, while ESPN’s climbed 6.0% to $285,995.

Looking at other sports: SMI said Fox’s 2019 World Series seven-game series grew to $149 million. This was up from the last seven-game series in 2017, when it was $134 million. The 2018 World Series of five games took in $119 million.

The average paid unit rate for 2019 World Series telecasts was $329,700 -- slightly lower than the average $336,500 in 2018, but higher than 2017’s $289,900.

1 comment about "NFL Regular-Season Ad Unit Pricing Up Nearly 9%".
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  1. Darrin Stephens from McMann & Tate, January 21, 2020 at 3:30 p.m.

    The league's own NFL Network doesn't even get a mention. Teehee.

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