Like the Super Bowl earlier this month, ABC has sold out of its advertising inventory for the 89th annual Academy Awards, reports Adweek.
Ads in the Oscar telecast are running as high as $2.5 million, according to Kantar Media, although the average cost of a 30-second spot is close to $2 million. Clients for this year’s broadcast include the AARP, Anheuser-Busch, AT&T, McDonald’s, Samsung and Walt Disney Studio, Geico, GM, Hyatt, Johnson & Johnson, The New York Times, Revlon, United Healthcare, Verizon and Walmart. FX also plans to air a spot in support of its new show, Feud, which features an episode about the Oscars.
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Ads in this year’s Super Bowl sold for as much as $5 million a spot, but Super Bowl audiences routinely top 100 million viewers. Last year’s Oscars attracted 34.4 million total viewers and was the third lowest-rated Academy Awards telecast since 1974. It also drew its smallest rating among key primetime demographic of adults 18-49 in at least 20 years at a 10.5. Still, the Academy Awards was the fourth most-watched telecast of last year, and the most-watched entertainment event.
And like the Super Bowl was for Fox, the Oscars is expected to be ABC’s highest-revenue day of the year, exceeding $100 million, according to Kantar.
ABC has signed a deal with the Academy of Motion Pictures to continue airing the Oscars through 2028.
ABC recently restructured its ad sales department under new president Rita Ferro.
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READ MORE: Adweek
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