While some brands “have bought into digital packages generally ranging from $300,000 to $600,000” for NBC’s broadcast of Super Bowl XLVI next Sunday, advertisers have “so far not shown the same enthusiasm for the live stream as they have the sold-out TV broadcast,” according to Daniel Frankel of PAID CONTENT. A sports media buyer said, “The question that remains to us is: what’s the actual value of the Super Bowl in comparison to other things that are streamed?” NBC notified a “half-dozen of the league’s premiere sponsors before the playoffs that it would stream the Super Bowl for the first time this year.” These advertisers -- including Nike, Visa and Anheuser-Busch -- were "offered the ability to purchase digital packages that include impressions not only in the big game, but in NBC’s Wild Card playoff and Pro Bowl coverage as well.” Buyers said that with a little over a week before the big game, there is “still lots of digital inventory left for the Super Bowl.” Despite the “huge popularity of the game, media buyers don’t believe NBC’s Super Bowl stream will draw a digital audience that much greater than the 200,000 to 300,000 unique viewers that NBC says typically watch its regular season contests online or through mobile devices” (PAIDCONTENT.org, 1/25).
