Disney’s upcoming Super Bowl broadcast is already scoring big ahead of the annual TV upfront.
Heading into the ABC and ESPN broadcast of Super Bowl 61 on Feb. 14, 2027, it’s a slightly different buying market for potential Super Bowl advertisers, with Disney having its first Super Bowl in two decades. Because of that, there’s potentially more opportunity for advertisers to get in the game.
Typically, Super Bowl broadcasters have a large portion of ads accounted for early in the year due to incumbent advertisers claiming their slots in the game, with as much as 40% of ads already earmarked from companies like NBC or Fox by the time the upfront market gets into high gear in May. However, with Disney not having a game in years, there are more slots available, which changes the strategy for Big Game ad sales.
“I realize we haven’t had a Super Bowl in 20 years, but the reality of Fox and NBC having 40% of the units sold out or demand against it because of incumbencies—it is unbelievable the amount of asks we have to be part of the Super Bowl even before we get to the upfront,” Rita Ferro, president of global advertising at Disney, told ADWEEK. “We’ve been very thoughtful in terms of how we’re talking to brands.”
Disney is selling ads as one broadcast across ESPN and ABC, as it does with Monday Night Football games, which will help provide reach across its platforms. And the company wants those ads to be the highest quality possible.
“People weren’t super dazzled with the advertising in the [last] Super Bowl. That was a lot of the buzz around it,” Ferro said. “We want to make sure that there’s a variety of advertisers in the show, but also advertisers who are thinking about the creative because it’s really important as we work with our partners at the NFL to make sure that it reflects the audiences that are watching, and those are diverse audiences across many products and categories.”
Ferro said it’s “not only major marketers” making the asks, with new and up-and-coming businesses also interested.
“Whether they’re AI companies, technology companies, small businesses that are now trying to make a splash for themselves in that window,” Ferro said. “Just based on the asks from brands, of, ‘Hey, I want to be part of the Super Bowl. What can I do there?’ I think you’re going to see that in terms of what our lineup looks like from an advertiser base.”
Heading into Disney’s May 12 upfront presentation, the Super Bowl will be the crown jewel of its offerings; however, the company also has several other priorities and tentpoles ahead. Ferro previewed what Disney has in store.