NBC Sports Says Super Bowl Advertisers Weren’t Scared Off By This Season’s NFL Protests

Last year's overtime game didn’t lead to a surge in inventory deals

NFL advertisers threatened to pull their ads earlier this season over coverage of the national anthem protests. Getty Images

By Jason Lynch

February 1, 2018

This year’s 10 percent decline in NFL ratings didn’t keep advertisers from paying more money than ever before—north of $5 million—for a Super Bowl ad. And while some NFL advertisers expressed concern over coverage of national anthem protests during the regular season, their anxiety didn’t spill over into Super Bowl ad sales.

Jason Lynch

@jasonlynch jason.lynch@adweek.com Jason Lynch is TV Editor at Adweek, overseeing trends, technology, personalities and programming across broadcast, cable and streaming video.