Sports Properties Vulnerable In Q4 With Ad Sales Declining
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Hyundai Remaining Active Despite Economy,
Buying Ad Time In Variety Of Sports |
Major sports properties are "showing signs of vulnerability" in Q4, as media buyers and network execs indicated ad sales are down as much as 15%, according to Anthony Crupi of BRANDWEEK. Brisk sales in the "upfront and long-term sponsorship packages have cushioned the blow," but the scatter market is "all but paralytic, as many key categories are slumping." Spending from financial services and domestic auto "have slowed, although drop-off in the latter has been offset by foreign auto." Hyundai has been "particularly active, buying time in nearly all available sports," including TNT's Thursday night NBA broadcasts and "across ESPN's college- and pro-football properties." While banking and credit card money is "dwindling, insurance is pulling its weight," as Geico has been "all but ubiquitous in the quarter, thanks to upfront deals and a healthy investment in scatter time." Network sales execs indicated that Nationwide and Progressive are also spending. However, it still is "clearly not a seller's market, and even iron-clad franchises like the [NFL] are coming at a discount." National NFL games on Sunday afternoon are "down slightly from the average price of $400,000 per 30-second spot, but the long-term looks a bit more troubling." Fox has "one or two units left" for its Thanksgiving Day telecast of Seahawks-Cowboys, but CBS reportedly is "having a hard time unloading time" for its Thanksgiving Titans-Lions matchup. Also, NBC said that it "still has about eight Super Bowl spots on its hands, an amount unchanged since September." Meanwhile, the NBA has been "fairly steady thus far" this season, as TNT and ESPN "both enjoy the security of two-to-three-year deals with clients like T-Mobile and Nationwide, and neither are hugely dependent on auto" (BRANDWEEK, 11/17 issue).
BOWLING FOR CASH: MEDIAPOST's Wayne Friedman cited media analysts as saying that this year's BCS games "could be a particularly tough sell to advertisers because of the abysmal economy, which includes some cutbacks from financial services and automotive advertisers for specific sporting events." The BCS has long been viewed as a "hard sell" due to the "lack of ad budgets that time of year, the big TV commercial inventories in the games and competition from the NFL playoffs" (MEDIAPOST.com, 11/18).
GREY AREA: The GLOBE & MAIL's William Houston writes while the Super Bowl and the CFL Grey Cup in Canada "each draw about the same number of viewers, with the Super Bowl holding a slight advantage," there is "no comparison in terms of ad rates." TSN is charging about C$42,000 for a 30-second spot during this Sunday's Grey Cup, while a 30-second spot on CTV for Super Bowl XLII in February cost C$110,000. Toronto-based Charlton Strategic Research President Gord Hendren said of the Super Bowl, "It is clearly a bigger event. It is in the United States. It's the No. 1 sports event in the U.S. and it's multicountry." Houston notes networks "set the rates as high as possible," and advertisers are "more willing to pony up for the Super Bowl than they are for the Grey Cup" (GLOBE & MAIL, 11/19).
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