NBC Sports Exec VP/Sales & Sales Marketing Seth Winter said that ad sales for NBCU's coverage of this year's Stanley Cup Playoffs across NBC, NBCSN, USA Network and CNBC so far are "pacing 6% ahead of last year," according to Jon Lafayette of BROADCASTING & CABLE. Ad sales for the playoffs last year were up about 10% to $151M from '14, and Winter "expects to finish up a similar amount." The bulk of the net's playoff inventory is "eaten up by regular hockey advertisers, including official league sponsors that buy strips across the regular season and postseason." Official sponsors in the U.S. include Discover, Honda, McDonald's, MillerCoors, Geico, Kraft, Microsoft, Lexus, Chrysler, SAP and Subway. Winter said that NBC Sports "has inventory available for what has been a strong scatter market." Winter: "We're actively in the market right now. As you can imagine, there's a lot of receptivity to it." Horizon Media Senior VP & Dir of National Broadcast Dave Campanelli added that the NHL "has been slowly but steadily growing over the years and 'the bang for the buck has been incredibly valuable.'" Campanelli: "For the sport, it's not necessarily good that no Canadian teams are in the playoffs. But for TV viewership in the U.S. it certainly doesn't hurt." Winter said that the "most important thing for the league is to have long, competitive series." Lafayette notes most of the major sponsored elements of the broadcasts "are with brands that have long-term deals." McDonald's is the "presenting sponsor of the NHL Live pregame show and Lexus presents the first intermission report." Discover "presents the second intermission report and Subway presents the intermission before overtime" (BROADCASTING & CABLE, 4/18 issue).
