Latest in Super Bowl

All but a handful of ads on NBC’s Super Bowl next February have been sold, fetching as much as $6.5 million for 30 seconds, according to the latest report from NBCUniversal ad execs. In a conference call with the press today, Dan Lovinger, EVP of ad sales at NBC Sports Group, said fewer than five spots remain…

NBCUniversal has closed a record-setting upfront, improving over 2019 levels with an overall advertising haul described by insiders as comfortably north of $7 billion. The company didn’t release an exact revenue figure. CEO Jeff Shell said last month at a Wall Street investor conference that a record-setting year was…

If you were hoping the Oscars might be returning to an earlier date next year, you probably can blame the Winter Olympics and the Super Bowl for making you wait, but we’ll get to that. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has landed on Sunday March 27 as the date for the 94th annual Academy Awards, with…

NBCUniversal brought out the stars to its Upfront on Monday to demonstate how the company's new content strategy might work in practice. The company — which has decentralized its buying across linear broadcast, cable and streaming — relied on the likes of Will Smith, Kelly Clarkson, Kevin Hart and Renee Zellweger to…

UPDATED with Paralympic Games commentators info: A majority of Japanese citizens oppose the Olympics to go ahead in Tokyo due to the coronavirus pandemic, but NBC insists the Games will go on, at least for now. "NBC will be bringing all of it to America," declared Mike Tirico today at the 2021 virtual NBCUniversal upfr…

Over a year that has seen the world turn upside down several times on several fronts, television ratings have proven resolute, sort of. While the numbers are down almost everywhere from the lows of the Super Bowl and the Oscars and all ports of call, it looks pretty certain that for the second year in a row Fox will…

Along with everything else, it certainly was a weird year for sports on TV, and today the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences is out with its nominations for the 42nd annual Sports Emmy Awards. ESPN dominated the network and network group races, scooping 54 and 41 noms, respectively. NFL Network was second…

Did you see the game? Then you probably heard Dick Stockton. The man who has called more major U.S. pro sports games for television than anyone in history announced his retirement today after 55 years in the business. Stockton, 78, began his career at CBS in the late 1960s and spent 17 years at the network. He also…

The NFL flatly denied a report of a preliminary rights deal with Disney, but the league is continuing to hold active talks with all bidders ahead of a key March date. Sports Business Journal reported the Disney pact, though it cautioned that “contracts have not been signed.” It pegged the annual rights fee at $2.6…

UPDATE, Feb. 24: Federal DUI charges against Bruce Springsteen were dropped today in a New Jersey court, though the rocker pleaded guilty to consuming an alcoholic beverage in a closed area. He paid a $500 fine. Charges of driving under the influence and reckless driving were dropped due to lack of evidence…

CBS may have aired the lowest-rated Super Bowl since 2007 on Sunday, but the network raked in $545 million in ad revenue from the linear broadcast, a record haul for the game. The figure is an estimate by research firm Kantar, which analyzed ads from the opening kickoff through the on-field trophy presentation, a span…

EXCLUSIVE: This year, it wasn’t a movie trailer that was all the buzz following the Super Bowl, but rather Michael B. Jordan as Alexa. Given the unpredictable environment of the pandemic, and movie theaters largely still shuttered coast to coast, most of the major studios cut their supply of trailers during Super Bowl…