NFL taking Super Bowl halftime rights to market as Pepsi deal expires

The 2021 skilled soccer season is simply over a month previous, and the NFL is already making ready for the 2023 Tremendous Bowl.

The Nationwide Soccer League’s Tremendous Bowl halftime present is sponsored by Pepsi, although the deal is ready to run out after the 2022 recreation that marks the tip of the present season. The NFL is now planning to take future sponsorship rights to the open market, in line with individuals accustomed to the matter who requested to not be named as a result of the negotiations are non-public.

Pepsi obtained the present’s rights in 2012 as a part of a extra vital advertising deal valued at over $2 billion, in line with the Wall Street Journal. Earlier than that, auto elements producer Bridgestone held the present’s rights and paid as much as $10 million yearly. 

Pepsi may nonetheless renew its cope with the league, however the NFL may additionally select to carve out the halftime present and promote the asset individually, the individuals stated.

The NFL declined to remark for this story.

Pepsi will stay the sponsor of February’s recreation in Los Angeles, with performers together with Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Mary J. Blige, Kendrick Lamar, and Eminem. The NFL companions with Jay-Z’s Roc Nation to provide the present. The 2022 Tremendous Bowl airs on NBC, which is owned by CNBC mother or father firm Comcast.

The worth of the halftime present may vary from $25 million to $50 million, one advertising skilled estimated, utilizing trade metrics. That takes into consideration what Bridgestone final paid for the rights together with an evolving media panorama that elements in social media impressions.

Developing with a exact estimate is a problem. NBC charged $6.5 million for 30-second advert slots for the upcoming Tremendous Bowl LVI in 2022. Making use of that determine to a 12-minute halftime present would assume an advert worth within the $150 million vary. However it’s unlikely an organization would pay that a lot yearly only for the halftime efficiency.

A Tremendous Bowl halftime rights package deal often consists of ancillary programming throughout the NFL season, business spots throughout the Tremendous Bowl, unique entry to performers for content material and different NFL branding main as much as the sport.

Wherever it lands, the value could be wealthy, as entrepreneurs get an enormous viewers after they spend money on the Tremendous Bowl. The 2021 recreation averaged 96.4 million viewers (together with streaming) for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers vs. Kansas Metropolis Chiefs matchup. NBC final aired the Tremendous Bowl in 2018, drawing over 100 million viewers.

“Nothing reaches half {the marketplace} in houses and demographics [other] than the Tremendous Bowl,” stated Tony Ponturo, who was vp of Anheuser-Busch international media sports activities and leisure advertising. “Some youthful, new tech firm that wishes to make a splash and has the sources to do it” ought to make a bid for the rights ought to they go to market, he added.

In discussing Tremendous Bowl rights with CNBC on Wednesday, Ponturo used Apple’s 1984 Super Bowl commercial for instance of how newer tech corporations can “rock the boat” utilizing the NFL’s prime recreation.

“When you did not know who Apple was in 1984, you now knew who Apple was,” Ponturo stated. “It was Steve Jobs’ manner of constructing an enormous splash.”

Given the sport’s international enchantment and the halftime present’s inclusion of artists from exterior the U.S., the sponsor may come from one other nation, together with Germany, the place the NFL wants to grow. Requested about manufacturers that might probably be a great match, Ponturo talked about electrical automotive maker Lucid Motors.

“I might guess one out of 100 auto prospects know who Lucid even is,” Ponturo stated. “So in the event that they want model consciousness and need to make an enormous splash to individuals not on Wall Avenue or auto aficionados to know who they’re, I can see an organization like that doing it.”

Ponturo known as it “on the spot model consciousness” and, regardless of the excessive price ticket, “one would argue it is value it,” he stated.

Lucid did not instantly reply to a request for remark.

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