NBC sees pay dirt with Super Bowls ads, spin-offs

NBC Sports, now owned by Comcast Corp., has sold a record $250 million in advertising for Sunday's Super Bowl game and is hoping that audience spillover from the big game will boost two prime-time shows, The Voice and Smash.

The best scenario for NBC would be a nail-biter Super Bowl that draws a big audience, delivering for sponsors who shelled out an average $3.5 million for 30 seconds of airtime. Experts say more than 100 million homes could tune in.

"They will do very well with the Super Bowl. Everything is looking toward a highly rated game," Neal Pilson, independent sports-industry consultant and former head of CBS Sports, said of NBC Sports. But he cautioned, "Everything falls apart if it's a blowout."

Said Al Michaels, NBC's play-by-play announcer, during a conference call early in the week, "All I can ask for is triple overtime." Late in the week, Las Vegas oddsmakers were favoring the Patriots by a field goal.

"I think it will be the biggest audience ever," said David Schwab, vice president of the sports-marketing firm Octagon.

While advertising sales are the most immediate and direct benefit, NBCUniversal Inc. - the entertainment and news conglomerate that includes NBC Sports - has been riding the Super Bowl coattails all week. It is part of a strategy to leverage the entertainment value of one of the nation's biggest TV spectacles for different parts of the NBCU business.

Among those broadcasting live from Indianapolis, where the Super Bowl will be played in the Lucas Oil Stadium, were the Today show, Late Night With Jimmy Fallon, E! News, Access Hollywood, Bravo's Top Chef, the Weather Channel's Al Roker, CNBC reporter Darren Rovell, Style correspondents Jeannie Mai and Alexa Prisco, and Golf Channel's Feherty Live.

Sports broadcaster Bob Costas held a town hall meeting Thursday in a local Indianapolis theater that was televised on the NBC Sports Network, the former Comcast-owned Versus 24-hour sports channel.

Comcast acquired NBCUniversal in early 2011. As part of the deal, NBC will run Comcast's regional sports networks and the 24-hour sports channel.

NBC rebranded Versus to the NBC Sports Network in early January partly because of the exposure it would receive during NBC's airing during Super Bowl week, network officials have said.