Dot-com advertisers are "starting to bail out" of ABC's
broadcast of Super Bowl XXXIV, according to USA TODAY's
Farrell & McCarthy, who report that advertisers "hoping to
make last-minute buys" for the game "say as many as four
dot-com companies have been trying to resell their ad time."
ScreamingMedia.com and Angeltips.com are among the companies
that bought time and "already have decided to skip the
game." In addition to fear of oversaturation by dot-com
advertisers, the companies' "concern" is that "heavy
advertising by dot-coms during the holiday season did not
generate as much Web traffic as hoped" (USA TODAY, 1/4).
Angeltips.com dropped its "planned Super Bowl buy in favor
of running more ads on ABC" this year (InternetNews.com,
12/30). USA TODAY's McCarthy wrote that ABC is "making dot-
com advertisers pay in advance" for Super Bowl ad time and
is "using an arsenal of defenses against the threat of
deadbeats, including letters of credit and escrow accounts."
ABC Exec VP/NFL Sales Larry Fried said "quite a few"
advertisers are affected by the move and added ABC is
cautious with "any advertiser that doesn't have particularly
good credit" or has "no payment history" (USA TODAY, 12/29).
A SUPER TEST? In N.Y., Joe Flint wrote that the
question of whether viewers will "shun ABC's broadcast" is
"growing more serious as it becomes increasingly likely"
that the game could feature the Rams, Colts or other teams
based in "relatively small" media markets. TN Media Senior
VP Steve Sternberg: "A lot of teams that are doing well
don't have a national following" (WALL ST JOURNAL, 12/28).
