http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/11/business/media/nbc-executive-says-he-is-very-satisfied-with-pace-of-super-bowl-ad-sales.html 2014-11-11 03:53:52 NBC Executive Says He Is ‘Very Satisfied’ With Pace of Super Bowl Ad Sales Sales of commercial time in Super Bowl XLIX by NBC, which will broadcast the game Feb. 1, is approaching 90 percent. === NBC “I’m never ‘extremely satisfied’ until we’re sold out,” said the executive, Seth Winter, executive vice president for sales of the NBC Sports and NBCUniversal News Groups at NBCUniversal, part of Comcast. That said, he added, “I’m very satisfied with what we see.” NBC is “approaching 90 percent” of the commercial time in the game’s being sold to advertisers, Mr. Winter said in a phone interview on Monday afternoon, which looks “pretty good” although it may be “a little slower pacing than previous years.” Mr. Winter’s reference was to disclosures in fall 2013 by Fox Broadcasting executives about sales of commercial time for The most recent previous estimates of how NBC was faring came from “We were there weeks ago,” Mr. Winter said. “We closed a fair amount of business in the last 10 days.” “We could very well be sold out by the end of December,” he added. “We’re in conversations with a lot of people.” Mr. Winter said he was not surprised that Super Bowl sales were somewhat behind last year’s pace because “we’re not impervious to the overall marketplace.” Indeed, there has been a noticeable softness in general demand for television commercial time for the last several months. Advertisers have been “seeking extraordinary flexibility in how they manage their budgets” by waiting until close to airtime to buy commercials, Mr. Winter said, compared with more typical conditions, when advertisers are more willing to make longer-term commitments to purchases of commercial time. NBC executives said last week There have also been questions about how interested Madison Avenue may be in the coming Super Bowl because of the recent uproar over domestic violence by players and There are “a dozen new advertisers” for Super Bowl XLIX that have not previously advertised in a Super Bowl, Mr. Winter said, and they have purchased 15 30-second spots in the game. He declined to discuss who those newcomers might be, citing a longstanding policy among sales executives at the networks broadcasting the Super Bowl to leave the announcements to the advertisers buying the time. The first-time Super Bowl advertisers that have raised their hands so far include Loctite glue and Mophie, which sells mobile devices and accessories. (At least one more new Super Bowl advertiser will be revealed soon; a reporter received an email on Monday, embargoed until Nov. 12, about the advertiser’s plans.) In addition to advertiser reluctance to commit, another factor might explain why NBC’s pace in ad sales is behind Fox’s last fall: NBC is charging more for each 30 seconds of ad time in Super Bowl XLIX than Fox did for 30-second spots in Super Bowl XLVIII. “Anyone who buys a single unit” — one 30-second commercial — during the game will pay $4.5 million, Mr. Winter said, and those buying two or more units are paying $4.4 million for each. The $4.5 million figure In addition to the costs of commercial time and production, Super Bowl advertisers must spend readily on “all the other marketing activations” surrounding the game, Mr. Winter said, which include social media, events on site and internal promotions aimed at employees. But then Super Bowl commercials have additional value, he added, because they attract attention that typical commercials do not — like, say, this article.