NBC Is Two Commercials Away From Super Bowl Sellout

NBC is only two commercials away from selling all their ad spots for the Super Bowl broadcast.

According to AdWeek.com, NBC Universal Sports and Olympics chairman Dick Ebersol announced that the network had sold two of its final four ad slots on Wednesday.

"Considering the state of the economy in the United States, we couldn't be any more thrilled with where we are," Ebersol said. "As of [Tuesday], we had four spots to sell. I'm told within the last few hours two of those four have sold, so now we're down to two spots unsold in the game."

Ebersol also mentioned that NBC had sold "a large number" of spots for their original asking price of $3 million. This will bring the channel's total earnings for the Super Bowl broadcast to over $200 million.

NBC sold about a dozen more ad spots at the base, which takes up about 20 percent of the 67 available spots. The majority of spots were sold "in the high $2 millions," about $2.8 million, or about 5 to 7 percent higher than Fox's Super Bowl XLII base rate of $2.7 million.

Last year's Super Bowl, which aired on Fox, made a record $186.3 million.

"I know that everybody wants to turn this into a melodrama about the sales," Ebersol said. "This is an extraordinary story against the backdrop of this economy ... And an unbelievable story by the sales guys who had the smarts to start selling this thing last [spring]."

Ebersol discussed the reasoning behind NBC's plan to air the commercials beginning hours before the actual game begins.

"There is no day in all of American life where we have this kind of communal experience. This is the one time all year where every ad has people leaning forward in their seats. ... So we're filling that curiosity throughout the day."