Super Bowl 30-Second Spots Could Fetch $3 Million

The Super Bowl is less than three months away, so the predicting season for the average price of a 30-second commercial is in full swing.

While some spots on Fox' Super Bowl XLII broadcast have sold for $2.7 million, compared to $2.6 million for CBS' broadcast last year, "some of the final slots ... could sell for as much as" $3 million, according to media buyers cited by the Wall Street Journal.

Optimum Sports Director of Sports Media Tom McGovern tells
Suzanne Vranica that , "one of the biggest buyers of Super Bowl ads over the past eight years," has been "tougher this year because he has had to navigate a tighter market," as Fox has just two spots left for the game, giving the network "the upper hand in negotiations."

McGovern has overseen the purchase of about 15 ads on this year's game for clients including PepsiCo, FedEx, Universal Studios and Cars.com -- "about a quarter of the entire ad inventory for the game."

Photo of University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, and site of Super Bowl XLII by ART FOXALL/UPI /Landov

McGovern said the last time he saw this type of demand for Super Bowl ads was in 1999, "when we had the dot-com companies and many of them came on the scene and just bought Super Bowl ad time."

"There is nothing available in the media that provides the reach that the Super Bowl has. It's becoming more so as you see the ratings of general entertainment television decline."

The Super Bowl has and will probably always be the king of television. It draws more than 40 percent of U.S. television audiences year in and year out, making it by far the most-watched annual event in the universe.

Buying a commercial spot virtually guarantees you will reach at least 100 million people.