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| 5 hours ago
Key insights:
Based on how many competitions have aired during the pandemic, advertisers and audiences are enthusiastic for live sports. While ad sales talks for most leagues remain paused, NFL negotiations are already underway.
Nearly three months since every major professional sports league shut down due to Covid-19, the return of live sports to TV could finally be just around the corner.
With the National Basketball Association, National Hockey League and Major League Baseball laying the groundwork toward resuming play in July and August, and the National Football League releasing its full season schedule last month, buyers are “cautiously optimistic” about live sports becoming a reality once again, said Jeremy Carey, managing director of Optimum Sports, Omnicom’s sports media and marketing division.
“We’re starting to pinpoint some time frames. We’ve done a tremendous amount of scenario planning on what that would look like” and helping clients prepare, he said.
Not only would live sports signal an important return to normal for the country, but they would also jump-start a TV ad sales marketplace that has been reeling. Altogether, the NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL generated more than $6.5 billion in national ad revenue during their last full seasons, according to Kantar Media, so media companies are eager to see sports advertisers spend money again. The resumption of live sports would be “a very symbolic and real indicator of the move forward” to whatever the TV ad industry’s
Read more here: https://www.adweek.com/tv-video/live-sports-imminent-return-should-electrify-the-faltering-tv-ad-sales-marketplace/
