• by Wayne Friedman , 9 hours ago

Strong ad-revenue growth during the most recent upfront sales period for the NFL continues to build its growing business outcomes for brands that place advertising, according to EDO Ad EnGage.

According to a report from the 2024-25 season, NFL ads were 19% more effective -- in business outcome results -- than the TV average during the regular season, 63% higher for NFL playoff games; and 243% more effective during the Super Bowl.

These business outcomes include near-term engagement in the minutes after viewing a TV spot, including website and digital search results.

Comparing non-NFL content (including entertainment, unscripted), it estimates brands would need 23 TV ads (broadcast and cable, excluding live sports) to “deliver the same brand engagement.” A brand would need 109 ads compared to one during a NFL playoff game.

Streaming NFL games produced even better returns -- 66% stronger than overall broadcast and cable TV average, including last year Amazon’s Black Friday game, Peacock’s Week one airing of a game in Brazil, and Netflix’s two Christmas Day games.

Brands that scored the highest business outcome engagements include restaurants -- 69% higher than the average restaurant brand on TV, while luxury auto brands were 42% higher, and banking and finance brands improved by 27%.

Looking at upfront sales activity for the new season, roughly half of Disney Advertising deals came from overall sports TV advertising deals that were "linear and addressable" -- which accounted for $4 billion in sales. A major piece of that comes from the NFL.

Likewise, NBCUniversal says sports TV advertising was a major factor, growing 45% versus a year ago. Paramount Skydance notes that sports programming ad revenue was a key driver in its upfront deal-making.

For the 2024-2025 NFL season, national TV advertising revenue, according to EDO estimates, was at $5.2 billion. For the regular NFL season, national advertising TV revenue was down 9% to $3.86 billion.

NFL continues to reap major TV viewing results compared to all other content: 72 of the top 100 most-watched TV shows were from an NFL game last year.