Fox has officially confirmed that all ad inventory for Super Bowl LVII on Feb. 12 has now been sold.
Fox
said it did not sell out until the end of January and blamed the delay
in closing the sales on declining economic conditions and the
cryptocurrency slowdown following FTX's bankruptcy.
- Mark
Evans, the executive VP of sales at Fox Sports, said, "A category blew
up in spectacular fashion this fall, and the companies in many levels
ceased to exist, so we lost a few units in atypical fashion in the
crypto industry, which threw some inventory back into the marketplace."
- Back
in September, Fox announced it sold 95% of ad inventory. Evans said
that dropped to the "high 80% range" after advertisers backed out.
- Evans said that despite the difficulties selling ads, they did not lower the prices on any of the ad units sold.
- Agency
buyers say that many advertisers did not want to make a large
commitment until closer to the airdate, which is why the ad inventory
was not sold until two weeks before the Super Bowl.
