CBS Girds for Strong College, NFL Ad Sales Market

The start of the new seasons has made for a busy time for CBS Executive Vice President of Sports Sales and Marketing John Boguszamp160 He said the SEC package which kicked off Sept 1 with West Virginia routing Tennessee is amp8220extremely well soldamp8221 amp160In addition to Georgia which lost to Alabama in the College Football Playoff championship game last season taking on South Carolina CBS has a potential top 10 matchup between LSUAuburn on Sept 15 amp160Doubleheaders are on tap Nov 3 with a late afternoonprimetime twin bill and the following Saturday with noon and 330 pm kickoffsHome to the defending champion Alabama which has finished No 1 in five of the past nine years under coach Nick Saban amp8220the SEC on CBSamp8221 is looking to extend its run as the mostwatched conference package to a 10th straight seasonamp160 Despite a 12 decline the 17game SEC slate averaged 50 million viewers scoring the two highestrated and mostwatched games of the 2017 regular season amp160GeorgiaAuburn tallied an 80 rating18 share and 135 million watchers on average in the conference title game while Auburnamp8217s triumph over Alabama in the amp8220Iron Bowlamp8221 forged a 76 rating17 share and an average audience of 137 millionVia multisports deals CBS sells units in both its college and NFL packages together amp8220There are a number of accounts that do both and then there are specific SEC and NFL advertisersamp8221 Bogusz explained amp160amp8220Obviously the list of NFLonly advertisers is longamp8221 amp160The ratio of those clients buying both and the individual football offerings hasamp160remained largely the same over the yearsNFL sellthrough is at about 80 around the same level at this point last year he noted adding that although there are units remaining CBSamp8217 NFL package is amp8220well soldamp8221 in SeptemberAmong categories Bogusz points to strength with insurance and technology especially the FAANG companies which have upped their NFL outlays amp160So too has Procter ampamp Gamble as packagedgoods are up somewhat as a groupPharmaceuticals whose roster was revised last year with other players stepping into the hole left by Cialis and Viagra which curtailed spending after they came off patent is also looking solid again amp160Bogusz remains hopeful autos will drive more ad sales later in the season as manufacturers seek to boost yearend sales totalsRelative to ad formats CBS continues to play it pretty close to the vest with its NFL broadcasts As was the case a year ago the network will shrink the screen on occasion and go doublebox featuring content often during replay reviews flanked by a commercialBogusz said there hasnamp8217t been too much talk about sixsecond spots but CBS is open to experimentingAsked if CBS is looking to sell all two minutes of commercial time after the twominute warning to a single sponsor as Fox doesamp160with itsamp160Thursday Night Footballamp160telecasts Bogusz explained that its a pricey callamp160amp160amp8220Itamp8217s not like this is an innovationamp8221 he said noting that if an advertiser wants to secure the entire pod CBS would be more than happy to accommodate amp160amp8220You can try a 120 but itamp8217s a highunit rate times four 30second spots amp160Itamp8217s a big number amp160Maybe a studio wants to come in and run a traileramp8221Although CBS hasnamp8217t sold any pods of that length Bogusz said it has sold amp8220a fair amountamp8221 of 60second unitsamp160 In terms of pricing he said CPMs for NFL action increased in the midsingle digitsamp160 CBS has made a slight adjustment on ratings based on results from the previous two seasons amp160amp8220Hopefully the ratings stabilize but we took the number down slightly to be more realisticamp8221 he explainedLike all of the other NFL carriers CBS saw audience erosion in 2017 with its Sunday afternoon game telecasts declining 11 to an average of 157 million watchersamp160 CBS39 nine national windows averaged 201 million viewers in 2017 down 8 from 217 million viewers last year amp160Still the NFL remains the top property in all of televisionCBS did count the top two 2017 regular season telecasts with New EnglandPittsburgh and Los Angeles ChargersDallas on Thanksgiving tackling nearly 269 million and 263 million viewers respectivelyThis year the first national game for CBS which like NBC punted on the Thursday Night Football simulcast package that is now in the hands of Fox NFL Network and Amazon Prime is New England at Jacksonville a Sept 16 rematch of last seasonamp8217s American Football Conference title contest and New OrleansNew York Giants two weeks later amp160The SteelersPatriots rematch is set for the Steel City on Dec 16 before Mike Tomlinamp8217s team travels to the Big Easy to visit Drew Brees and the Saints the next SundayCBS caps its season with Wild Card and Divisional playoff contests as well as the American Football Conference championship game as leadins to its coverage of Super Bowl LIII from Atlantaamp8217s MercedesBenz Stadium on Feb 3Bogusz said CBS has sold amp8220a lot of unitsamp8221 in Super Bowl LIII with pacing about the same as when CBS last presented the title contest Super Bowl 50 from Leviamp8217s Stadium in Santa Clara CA in 2016 amp160He declined to discuss pricing levelsFor Super Bowl LII in Minneapolis NBC which also began coverage of the Winter Olympics from PyeongChang South Korea just several days later crossed the 5 million per 30second unit markPhoto creditamp160 Adrian CurielUnsplashClick the social buttons above or below to share this content with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writersamp160

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CBS Girds for Strong College, NFL Ad Sales Market

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