Advertisers have claimed an estimated 95% of the Fox 2010 NFL television schedule, well ahead of the state of sales just before the first kickoff last year. And on top of that, Super Bowl inventory is all but sold-out, with just a few fourth quarter avails still on the shelf. In general, the NFL is floating all TV boats.
According to a report in Street and Smith’s Sports Business Journal, the network’s regular season sales are about 20% ahead of 2009’s level.
Disney’s Monday Night Football franchise on ESPN is said to be just about sold out, CBS has peddled off over 90% of its inventory, and NBC’s schedule only has 10% of its availabilities still available.
A Fox sports sales exec said that just about all advertiser categories were up, but the real driver is a resurgent automotive category, which along with financial services had been a particularly depressed category in 2009.
RBR-TVBR observation: Add in some hot political advertising and we may be seeing some good revenue results for video outlets lucky enough to have the NFL on their schedule during the end of Q3 and the beginning of Q4. Plus remember is the NFL goes 18 games: NFL owners will send 18 game proposal to players that will ring the cash register even more.
