Super Bowl Ads Are Up 21,000% in 60 Years
Are Super Bowl Ads Priced Correctly?
I’m staying consistent with my bi-weekly schedule.
It is the week following the Super Bowl. I’d be a pretty crappy ad man if I failed to publish this week.
I talk about my favorite ad during Sundays game somewhere in this newsletter.
Enjoy!
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Comic #2
If you haven’t caught on by now the comics are going to be very stupid!
Time for the meat and potatoes:
Are Super Bowl Ads Priced Correctly?
Rachael Higgins with Because of Marketing published this breakdown:
Yearly breakdown of Super Bowl ad cost
1967: $37,500
1974: $100,000
1995: $1 million
2017: $5 million
2020: $5.6 million
2021: $5.5 million
2022: $6.5 million
2023: $7 million
2024: $7 million
2025: $8 million
2026: $8 million reportedly ($265k per second)
The deals broadcasters sign
All of these deals include regular season games each week, prime time matchups, playoff matchups, and other marquee matchups like Thanksgiving and Christmas.
All of these deals are 10 year deals that began in 2023.
Fox: $2.2B per year, Super Bowl 2023, 2025, 2029, 2033
CBS: $2.1B per year, Super Bowl 2024, 2028, 2032
NBC: $2B per year, Super Bowl 2026, 2030, 2034
ABC/ ESPN: $2.7B per year, Super Bowl 2027, 2031
Amazon: $1B per year, Thursday Night Football, no Super Bowl
*Super Bowl based on game year, not NFL season year
I’m trying to put a value on the Super Bowl broadcasting rights here.
Fox got 4 Super Bowls in their 10 year deal, but they gave up their Thursday Night football primetime rights to Amazon which the NFL turned around and sold for $1B.
Based on these deals, some back of the napkin math and estimations lead me to believe the broadcasting rights for a Super Bowl could be purchased for about $7B-$10B if someone like Apple, Amazon, or Netflix came calling.
It might be a little more complicated than this, because they have a loyalty to their long time broadcasters, and I’d guess the NFL would only sell the Super Bowl to someone who is broadcasting games all season. ESPN deal aside, broadcasters are paying $5B - $7B per Super Bowl, but this isn’t considering the other games they are broadcasting.
Why doesn’t the NFL just broadcast it?
They know broadcasters can make money with their streaming services and other entertainment products. The game is worth more to broadcasters than it is to the NFL. Symbiotic.
But, do broadcasters make their money back on ads alone?
How Much Do the Broadcasters Make?
First let’s look at the total ad spend on NFL TV Broadcasts: NFL Ad sales total $4.5B annually across entire 2021/22 season.
TV Advertising spend in the NFL grew to nearly $6.8B by 2024/25.
The NFL’s media deals are worth about $10B annually when looking at the 5 broadcasters I laid out above.
Now we see why Amazon wanted to stream a game. The advertising makes back about 70% of your media investment into the NFL, you just need subscribers to make up the difference.
This is why other broadcasters are creating streaming services, Amazon is just ahead of the game in combining their streaming service with other offerings.
In 2023 Fox earned nearly $600M on advertising sales during their Super Bowl.
In 2025 Fox increased their revenue by $200M bringing it to $800M.
In 2024 CBS earned close to $700M in advertising sales. The overtime earned them an extra $60M.
Keep in mind this is just the advertising revenue. This includes none of the extra network boost from the gravity of the super bowl in weeks before and after the game.
Broadcasters are earning back about 30-40% of their annual deal when they get to broadcast a Super Bowl.
So, we’ve determined that broadcasting the Super Bowl, and the NFL for that matter, is a winning proposition right now. Especially if you can build a subscription base for a streaming platform.
For proof the NFL’s media deals are in favor of the broadcaster, see here that the NFL is looking to update the deals ASAP as they are ‘undervalued.’
To me, this begs the question, are Super Bowl ads priced correctly?
Well, let’s start by trying to understand what similar inventory could be worth.
What else could you get for $8M?
We have a great list thanks to this Digiday article:
“1.6B programmatic digital display impressions
Nearly 5 years on a wall scape on Interstate 95 in Miami
A prime-time spot on network TV every single night for four months
667 million impressions in an airport terminal takeover”
Now it’s my turn to get fun with it:
How Many Impressions Does a Super Bowl Ad Get in Comparison?
There is an “Opportunity” for 127M simultaneous, engaged, and social viewers. That’s if everything goes perfectly. After that you can expect further social attention if all goes well.
Kim K’s posts get an average of 1.4M likes, Wimbledon had an overall viewership of 69M last year, and the New York Times has nearly 12M subscribers.
All of these advertising opportunities are viable, but they require proper strategy and execution. The campaign needs to turn heads. The ad space alone won’t push product.
Super Bowl ads are priced appropriately for their draw and social appeal.
However, their relevance in the advertising industry makes them LESS effective in the real world.
Is it worth $8M for all of the brands buying ads?
Brands that kill it often get earned media. However, this is the case across all high value ad space (as made clear in my Oscar Mayer campaign below. I really should pitch that to them. Kidding… unless?)
A Super Bowl Ad isn’t a right or wrong option for a brand.
It’s all in the execution.
Let’s take a brand like Oscar Mayer for example.
You wouldn’t be surprised to see them show up during the Super Bowl, and you might not even be surprised if they had a “winner.”
But, if Oscar Mayer showed up with 4 Kim Kardashian posts, leaning into the fact they were skipping the Super Bowl in favor of said posts, that could create more buzz than any one ad on the big day.
Sometimes we see business who aren’t ready to scale and we never hear about them again. Sometimes we see agencies create an ad to please the industry,
But sometimes it’s a perfect storm.
We made clear the ads are priced accurately, that was the goal of todays newsletter.
We’ve seen a number of successful Super Bowl ads over the years… Let’s save the question of “Is it worth it for the brands buying ads?” for another year, and leave it at if you’re ready, sometimes.
TLDR: Super Bowl Ads are priced correctly when compared to “similar” products, but that’s the point, nothing is similar to a Super Bowl ad. I also explore how brands can use other mediums to show up in a big way.
Dessert of the Newsletter
If the article is the meat and potatoes this is the dessert
My favorite ad this week:
To me Budweiser won the Super Bowl. Made OF America was GOLD. Free Bird in the background was the cherry on top.
Agency: BBDO
Some runner ups are: Pringles, Project Hail Mary, and State Farm even though they under performed my high expectations.
BOOK CLUB
I will be launching a book club. Please shoot me an email if you’re interested! (David@pothosadvertising.com)
For now I will just share what I’m reading, what I want to read, and I’ll highlight one of my favorite books of all time each newsletter.
CURRENTLY READING
Permission Marketing - Seth Godin (1999)
Project Hail Mary - Andy Weir (2021)
READING NEXT
Purple Cow - Seth Godin (2002)
The Design of Everyday Things - Don Norman (1988)
Stories That Stick - Kindra Hall (2019)
HIGHLIGHT
Hey, Whipple, Squeeze This (3rd edition) - Luke Sullivan (2008)
This book airs out all of the dirty laundry in a way that makes the bad parts of the industry seem desirable. But not so fast, you need the skills and work to earn your keep in the industry.
It teaches lessons through first hand anecdote and story in what feels like mad-man style advertising offices. We learn about the creative process, what media channels are worth the investment, and how to develop a career in the industry.
The book focusses heavily on copywriting, which helped me appreciate the copywriting I do for my job.
It’s a must read for any advertising professional or anyone looking to get into an adjacent field.
Other Substack articles I liked this month:
Commonplace Zines: Quarter Size Zine Template and Tutorial
Branding Bullsh*t: 2026 Super Bowl Ads - Winners and Losers
What I’m watching:
Olympics: I’m enjoying the slope style skiing, curling, and hockey so far.
Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die: I’m seeing this movie tomorrow in a pre-release. If it’s as good as Rotten Tomatoes says (92%) it is the movie will return to this section in 2 weeks.
Super Bowl: This is obvious, I already talked about it, but what a boring game from a sports perspective.
Random Picture(s) from this month:
GUESS THE BRAND
The game where I give you 3-6 words as clues and you “Guess The Brand!”
Mermaid
Seattle
Roast
P.S. Thank you for reading. Please let me know what sections you like and dislike.