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Disney is attempting a feat of magic that might vex even talented sorcerers like its own Maleficient or Dr. Strange.
After clashing with advertisers earlier this year whenthe company pressed for $10 million for a single
30-second Super Bowl commercial, Disney is trying again — even though it declared in July that all commercial inventory in the Big Game was sold out.
Has Disney won permission from the NFL to expand the number of commercials in the gridiron classic? No. The entertainment giant is trying to line up a group of marketers that might pick up Super Bowl inventory in case a current sponsor does what is known in the ad business as “seeking relief,” or asking if it can be freed from its ad commitments tied to the extravaganza.
In this case, according to two different media buyers familiar with current talks between Disney and advertisers, the company is seeking between $10 million and $12 million per 30-second spot, as well as what is known as a “match” of another tranche of money for other parts of Disney ad inventory.
How can a company negotiate for commercials that aren’t up for sale?
Disney is looking to the near future. The company’s hope is that it can take inventory that any current advertiser gives back and re-sell it for a higher price. Such haggling is common each year, particularly if an advertiser feels the creative concept they’ve chosen is not worthy of the Super Bowl or if a business is facing economic pressures. Indeed,State Farm asked Fox to let it out of a deal for commercials in Super Bowl LIX, citing obstacles created for its business by disastrous California wildfires. Such requests typically don’t start in earnest until closer to the end of the fourth quarter, which is why most TV networks don’t like to declare sell-out until just days before the Super Bowl starts.
At present, “I’ve heard there isn’t really anyone asking,” says one of the buyers. “If I said to them today, ‘I’ll give you $12 million,’ they don’t have a spot for me. Clearly, they’re not getting that demand.” Disney is working to develop “a list of advertisers trying to get in should someone back out,” says a second executive. One person familiar with recent talks says Disney is seeing robust interest in potential deals.
Disney declined to make executives available for comment.
The Super Bowl has in recent years become even more of a Madison Avenue treasure. In the streaming era, finding large swaths of audience watching at the same time is more difficult than ever. Indeed, Disney’s ability to sell out the Big Game in July despite navigating backlash marked one of the earliest moments of completion in the overall Super Bowl sales cycle.
Nonetheless, Disney has displayed an unexpected aggressive streak around its 2027 Super Bowl telecast, which will mark the first time one of its properties has shown the Big Game in nearly two decades. The company has good reasons to set high expectations. It is already airing different versions of the game, a traditional one for ABC and ESPN and the other, a more tongue-in-cheek presentationwith Peyton and Eli Manning. More bespoke programing tied to specific audience niches could be in store, depending on talks between the company and the NFL. Disney also plans to use the fact that the next Super Bowl airs during a three-day-weekend and in close proximity to Valentine’s Day.
Disney initially pressed for a sizable increase in the cost of commercial time, seeking $10 million for a 30-second spot, compared with the $7 million this year’s broadcaster, NBC, sought in early discussions. When Disney was able to sell some ads at $9 million or more to clients who didn’t work with major media buying shops, it tried to use that to cajole major Super Bowl spenders like Anheuser Busch InBev and PepsiCo to do the same, and told those sponsors they might lose the premium positions they typically hold during the telecast, since others were paying more. Big advertisers pushed back on such a notion, and Disney eventually started selling much of its time for $8 million or more.
“There’s kind of a sour feeling” from some advertisers around Disney’s sales process for the event, says one of the buyers. “They certainly didn’t enamor themselves to advertisers,” this executive added, noting that Disney’s handling of commercial placement will be scrutinized more carefully during the telecast because of the negotiations.
Disney has been more intensely focused on its financials since Josh D’Amaro took over as CEO from Bob Iger in March. Under D’Amaro, Disney has enacted new rounds of layoffs and examined its cost structure. The company last month unveiled a new price hike for many of its streaming properties. Last week, Dana Walden, Disney’s chief creative officer, discussed at a conference some of the challenges the company faces in trying to keep late-night host Jimmy Kimmel on the air as viewers migrate away from watching his show in linear fashion. Kimmel’s current contract — lasting just one year — lapses following the end of the current TV season in 2027.
Advertisers, however, believe the millions they spend on TV and streaming ads should get them prominent placement and wide consumer reach. They are less interested in any media partner’s money woes. Marketers and media buyers balked in 2022, for example, when the newly combined Warner Bros. Discovery pushed advertisers to increase the dollars they spent with the company during what is known as the industry’s “upfront” market, and threatened to keep ads off of HGTV and out of sports unless volume meaningfully climbed. At the time, Warner had taken on billions in debt and needed to reduce it if its stock was to climb anew.
In response, some buyers took their clients’ money elsewhere and Warner lost millions of dollars in that year’s market.
Disney has other methods at its disposal if it wants to capture additional Super Bowl ad dollars. In the past, Fox has opened additional commercial breaks in the game, securing permission from the NFL to do so., The challenge? The NFL, according to media buyers, typically takes half of any revenue.
