USATODAY.com - Ad sales boom for Super Bowl, Olympics

USATODAY.com - Ad sales boom for Super Bowl, Olympics: "Ad sales boom for Super Bowl, Olympics
By Theresa Howard, USA TODAY
NEW YORK ? The expected bruising battle of big sports events for first-quarter ad spending has turned out to be a draw.
ABC's Super Bowl Feb. 5 comes just five days before NBC Universal's 17 days of Winter Olympics coverage on its broadcast, cable and Internet properties begins. At this point, however, and without massive discounting, ABC is reportedly 85% sold out and on track for up to $150 million. NBC says it's 90% sold out and should hit its $900 million target.
Among veteran Super Bowl advertisers, only McDonald's and Visa, both also longtime Olympic sponsors, opted out of the game for the Olympics. For Visa, a big factor was the chance to be the sole credit card advertiser for the Games (MasterCard and MBNA also had ads in last year's Super Bowl), says spokesman Michael Rolnick. 'The Olympics give us a unique opportunity over 17 days to showcase Visa to a very large audience using category exclusivity.'"