The lack of live sports has been a detriment to radio stations and television networks. The NFL Draft is as close as we are going to get to something familiar and meaningful for a while, and advertisers seem to realize that.
Advertising inventory on ESPN and ABC is sold out for the first two days of coverage according to Michael McCarthy of Front Office Sports. More than 100 companies will advertise across the two networks over the course of the entire three day event. More than 60 of those are spending money on the NFL Draft for the first time.
Jim Minnich, who serves as the vice president of revenue and yield management for sports with Disney Advertising Sales, would not comment on specific prices. He did tell McCarthy that the few spots remaining for the day 3 coverage of the NFL Draft are priced higher than they were for last year’s event.
“We’ve seen, frankly, more demand than we have availability due to the pause in live sports,” he said. “I think there’s a certain level of demand also because of the type of draft prospects that are in the NFL Draft this year.”
McCarthy writes that Adam Schwartz, a media buyer with Horizon Media “told Front Office Sports this week that the remaining 30-second spots in NFL Draft coverage are selling in the $250,000 range.”
