Overtime in the Super Bowl was exciting for football fans and profitable for CBS.
With Super Bowl LVIII producing a long overtime, that led to extra money in revenue for CBS.
Anthony Crupi of Sportico.com reported that CBS aired 10 more commercials that advertisers paid an estimated $60 million for due to the extra quarter being played.
It took their overall ad revenue from the big game close to an eye-popping $700 million.
“For the NFL’s broadcast partners, the procedure is fairly straightforward, even if overtime is a relatively uncommon outcome. As CBS was busy selling off its standard in-game units, the network sold anywhere between five and seven contingency slots at a slight discount from its average asking price. (While many of the 30-second spots that were sold in the scatter market earned more than $7 million a pop, the average rate for the full slate of ads worked out to around $6.47 million.) – Sportico”
The extra 10 TV commercials came during a 14-minute and 57-second overtime period, which allowed the Chiefs to seal their 25-22 win over the 49ers and win back-to-back Super Bowl rings.
The going rate for a regular 30-second commercial during this year’s big game was around $7 million.
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After the first-ever overtime Super Bowl back in 2017, that year’s broadcaster Fox revealed that sales reps were fielding calls from advertisers during the fourth quarter, as they realized an extra quarter was extremely possible.
“CBS’ ad sales team already had a full complement of spots to air during the bonus breaks long before Super Bowl LVIII kicked off in Las Vegas.
“CBS had booked a handful of insurance units in the event the Chiefs and 49ers required a little extra time to settle their differences,” per Sportico’s report.
Most of the overtime commercials during this year’s Super Bowl were repeats from earlier in the night, but money was still made.
The Super Bowl was available for fans to watch on CBS, but also on Paramount+ and Nickelodeon, which helped set a new record for the most viewed telecast.
