Date: 10th January 2001

CBS: Everything's Super With Super Bowl


A CBS spokesman insisted on Tuesday that the network was "right on target" with its Super Bowl sales, even though 10 percent of its commercial inventory for the game -- about six 30-second spots -- remain to be sold. Fielding questions from reporters after Tuesday's Wall Street Journal commented that the remaining number of ads is larger than usual and was "a bad sign," spokesman Dana McClintock responded that the network expects to surpass the revenue generated by previous Super Bowls for any TV network. Some analysts expressed skepticism, however. Tim Spengler, director of national buying for Interpublic Group of Cos.' Initiative Media, told Bloomberg News, "I'm not sure there are that many guys ready to plop down $2 million" for one of the remaining spots. But SG Cowen analyst Edward Hatch said on CNN that CBS had several options open to it with the leftover time: "They could choose to retain a few minutes for itself, to promote Survivor, or their prime time schedule, or even their MTV Network programming."

Source: Studio Briefing