CBS Sports 90% sold out of Super Bowl inventory

Super Bowl 58 is shaping up to be a winner for CBS Sports.

The network, which will air the game on Feb. 11, has sold 90% of its ad inventory for the game, well ahead of where CBS Sports was when it last aired the game in 2021, John Bogusz, EVP of CBS sports sales at Paramount Advertising, said during a call with reporters Tuesday. Beyond that, the network is 85% sold out of inventory across CBS Sports’ regular season games, which kick off Sunday, Sept. 10.

In the case of the Super Bowl, Bogusz said, the ads have been sold at a premium, and the broadcaster is looking to keep price points high as it sells the rest of the ads. For the last Super Bowl, Fox Sports sold some spots for more than $7 million.

“We’re anxious to sell the remaining 15% and the last 10% of our inventory,” Bogusz said Tuesday. “But it’s going to come at a price.”

Starting lineup: While Bogusz declined to share specific brands participating in the Super Bowl broadcast, auto, telecom, beer, and tech brands are all represented, along with movie studios and a “host” of first-time advertisers. Anheuser-Busch is returning to the game, and after the brand declined to extend its more than three-decade run as the game’s exclusive beer partner last summer, a few rival beer brands are also on the ad roster, Bogusz confirmed.

Through the uprights: Live sports broadcasts have been attracting considerable advertiser interest, especially amid ongoing audience declines across much of linear TV and the ongoing writers’ and actors’ strikes, which have slowed the flow of new programming. That dynamic has worked in the network’s favor this fall, Bogusz suggested.

“The NFL is getting stronger and stronger every year,” CBS Sports chairman Sean McManus said, noting that 88 of the top most-watched 100 TV programs in 2022 were NFL broadcasts. “And whenever you have the Super Bowl culminating your season, it’s even more exciting.”

Double trouble: As previously announced, CBS Sports will run an alternative broadcast of the Super Bowl on Nickelodeon in a bid to attract a younger and more diverse audience with a slime-filled game. While most Super Bowl advertisers get access to both the CBS Sports feed and the Nickelodeon feed with an option to run different ad creative, some brands, including beer and gambling brands, don’t have that option to run on Nick.

The network is still determining what it will do with those empty ad slots, though some options include running internal programming, selling some Nickelodeon-specific ad units, or simply kicking it back to the game’s programming, Bogusz said.