Disney is asking companies to pay an exorbitant amount to buy commercial ads for Super Bowl 61, even though the company has already sold out its ad inventory.
According to Variety, Disney, which will be televising the Super Bowl in February 2027, is seeking up to $12 million for a 30-second advertisement. The outlet reported that Disney hopes to use inventory a current advertiser returns to the company and resell it.
Disney announced in August the company had sold out of its Super Bowl ad spots. The company said 58 brands across 34 distinct categories purchased ads.
“Our Upfront and a sold-out Super Bowl LXI make it clear: brands see Disney as a must-have investment – one built on our ability to deliver audiences at scale, across live events and streaming, all year long,” Rita Ferro, Disney’s president of global advertising, said.
Front Office Sports reported Disney sought $10 million for the 30-second commercials, but ended up selling them for between $8 million and $9 million.
A buyer who purchased an ad slot for the Super Bowl from Disney told Variety that “there’s kind of a sour feeling” among certain companies about how Disney has handled ad sales.
“They certainly didn’t enamor themselves to advertisers,” the buyer explained.
According to Adweek, for Super Bowl 60, NBC sought $7 million for a 30-second commercial, but due to demand, it raised the price to $8 million.
Since 2010, the price for Super Bowl commercials has increased by millions of dollars. For Super Bowl 44, it charged between $2.5 million and $2.8 million, NPR reported.
This represents a 300% increase in the cost of Super Bowl ads.
The Super Bowl is one of the last events in America that most Americans watch.
A Harris Poll from February showed that nearly 70 percent of Americans planned to watch the Super Bowl and 51 percent of people said “it’s the last event we still watch collectively as a country.”
For Super Bowl 60, almost 125 million people, which is nearly 40 percent of America’s total population, watched the Seattle Seahawks defeat the New England Patriots.
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Zachery Schmidt is the digital editor of The Star News Network. Email tips to Zachery at [email protected].
