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Comparison of Women's and Men's Professional Sports: Advertising Cost
Key Takeaways
- According to Standard Media Index, "the average upfront rate for a 30-second spot in broadcast prime fell 28% from the 2018-19 bazaar to $55,000 a pop." However, Ad Week reported that in 2022, 30-second spots cost between "a couple of hundred thousand dollars" to over $2 million during the championship game.
- According to iSpot.tv, $157 million was spent by brands nationally for the PGA Tour during the first half of 2021. During the 2021 PGA Tour, FedEx's Moving Forward TV commercial cost $1.4 million; Genesis spent $610,000 on its Creating Tomorrow, Today spot; the AT&T Connect & Learn ad cost $1.9 million; Dell Technologies' Stop at Nothing ad cost $1.1 million; while Corona Premier spent $1.4 million on its Winning and Playing commercial.
- During the 2021-2022 regular NBA season (82 games), the estimated national TV ad spend was $470.7 million, generating 21.92 billion TV ad impressions. During the playoffs (8 games), the estimated TV ad spend was $842.4 million to generate 35.1 billion ad impressions.
Introduction
We have provided the cost of 30-second advertising on TV for the NBA. After an extensive search through the public domain, we could not find any information on how much a 30-second TV spot costs for the remaining men's and women's games. Therefore, we have provided other comparable metrics, such as ad revenue generated, ad impressions, viewership, e.t.c., to help understand the business side of the sport.
30-Second Advertising Cost
NBA
- According to Standard Media Index, "the average upfront rate for a 30-second spot in broadcast prime fell 28% from the 2018-19 bazaar to $55,000 a pop." However, Ad Week reported that in 2022, 30-second spots cost between "a couple of hundred thousand dollars" to over $2 million during the championship game.
Other Helpful Findings, e.g., Ad Revenue, Viewership, Ad Impressions
NBA
- According to data from iSpot.tv, the 2021-2022 NBA regular season and post-season generated $1.31 billion in ad sales. During the season, there were 35.1 billion ad impressions, a 26% increase from the previous year.
- During the 2021-2022 regular NBA season (82 games), the estimated national TV ad spend was $470.7 million, generating 21.92 billion TV ad impressions. During the playoffs (8 games), the estimated TV ad spend was $842.4 million to generate 35.1 billion ad impressions.
- The TV viewership for the 74 NBA games, excluding the finals, was around 800,000 every night.
- According to iSpot.tv, the NBA playoffs held between May 9-15 received 4.9 billion ad impressions.
WNBA
- The WNBA reportedly generates $60 million in annual revenue. According to Statista, the WNBA 2021 regular season games were watched by an average of 306,000 viewers on ESPN, ESPN2, and ABC.
- According to ESPN, the 2021 WNBA Finals were viewed by an average of 548,000 people throughout four games.
Men's Soccer
- According to World Soccer Talk, the USMNT had an average of 745,625 viewers per game on English-language TV and 1,061,421 viewers on Spanish-language TV.
Women's Soccer
- In 2021, an average of 401,913 people watched the US Women National Team games.
Major League Soccer
- According to Sporting Business Journal, MLS games viewership in 2021 increased by 19% from the 2019 numbers to reach 276,000.
National Women League Soccer
- According to Reuters, the NWSL championship match final was viewed by 525,000 viewers on CBS, a 216% increase from the 2019 final.
PGA
- The 2022 PGA Tour Canadian Open final round attracted an average of 2.78 million viewers on CBS. The viewership hit 3.67 million as Rory McIlroy clinched his second consecutive Canadian open. The third round of the tournament was viewed by 1.96 million people.
- According to iSpot.tv, $157 million was spent by brands nationally for the PGA Tour during the first half of 2021. During the 2021 PGA Tour, FedEx's Moving Forward TV commercial cost $1.4 million; Genesis spent $610,000 on its Creating Tomorrow, Today spot; the AT&T Connect & Learn ad cost $1.9 million; Dell Technologies' Stop at Nothing ad cost $1.1 million; while Corona Premier spent $1.4 million on its Winning and Playing commercial.
LPGA
- According to Sports Media Watch, the LPGA Classic was viewed by 706,000 people.
- As per the Golf Channel, the LPGA Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament averaged 237,000 viewers on the Golf Channel, its best viewership record.
Men's Tennis
- According to Statista, the viewership of U.S. Open Tennis on ESPN in the US was 1.27 million, 0.97 million, 1.04 million, 1.28 million, 0.7 million, and 0.8 million in 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021, respectively.
- The men's final had a viewership of 2.051 million on ESPN.
Women's Tennis
- According to Essentially Sports, the 2021 US Open women's tennis final between teenagers Emma Raducanu and Leylah Fernandez had 2.442 million viewers.
- The US Open women's tennis semifinals have had more viewership than the men's finals from 2017 to 2020. According to experts and commentators, for the fifth time in seven years, more people have watched the women's final compared to the men's final.
Men's Swimming
- In 2021, the US Men Olympics Swimming Trials were viewed by an average of 2.7 million viewers per session on NBC.
Men's Figure Skating
- According to US Figure Skating, "NBC’s primetime broadcast averaged 17.8 million viewers with a 10.1 household rating/18 share."
Women's Figure Skating
- In 2017, the US Women's Figure Skating Championships had 2.8 million viewers, down from 3.7 million in 2016 and 3.3 million in 2015.
Research Strategy
To provide the requested information on the cost of 30-second advertising on TV for the assigned sports, we first searched through marketing and advertising sources such as iSpot.TV, Ad Age, and Adweek, among others. Right off the bat, we realized that the cost of a 30-second spot during the assigned sports, including their finals, is not available in the public domain. These marketing and advertising sources, especially iSpot.tv usually provides an advertising recap at the end of major sporting events in the US, measuring total ad spend, ad impressions, top ads, e.t.c. However, none of the reports published by iSpot.tv discusses the unit cost of running a single ad. These advertising and marketing sources also analyze a few of the assigned sports, especially the men's sports such as the NBA and the PGA Tour.
Next, we consulted sports news and media sources such as Sports Business Journal, Sportico, and many more. These sources report on the ad revenue generated by some of the most popular sports in the US. While we were able to glean some helpful information on the NBA ad revenue and cost of a 30-second TV spot, we could not find any other information from these sources about the other assigned sports.
We also attempted to triangulate the cost of a 30-second TV ad using the available information, such as a brand's estimated ad spend and the number of ads they had run, for example, during the NBA season. However, some of the data points are not available in the public domain.
Finally, we consulted ad tracking firms such as Edo Inc, audience measurement sources such as Nielsen, statistics sources such as Statista, and other third-party sports media sources to determine the ad revenue, total revenue, and viewership statistics of the assigned men and women's sports to provide helpful findings that may help in comparing the business side of both men and women's sports in the US. The cost of 30-second advertising on TV for some of the assigned sports is only available for the sport’s finals, e.g., the NBA finals. For most of the sports, we could not find the cost of a 30-second TV spot. Therefore, we have provided other helpful findings on the ad revenue generated, ad impressions, e.t.c., to help understand the business end of the sport. In some cases, we expanded the geographic scope globally since there was little to no information on some sports in the US.