Fox’s final offer to advertisers: $500K for a :15 ad during the Super Bowl — on Tubi

In addition to the standard 30- and 60-second ad units sold against Super Bowl coverage, Fox has made a limited supply of 15-second, streaming-only ad units on Tubi, its free ad-supported streaming (FAST) service, available to advertisers.

According to sales materials seen by Digiday, the 15-second slots were each priced at $500,000, and would be delivered across a nationwide audience. Tubi executives were offering the slots to media agencies as late as Jan. 31.

The 2023 and 2024 Super Bowls each broke records for streaming audiences. This year’s edition of the game, the first to be available to view via FAST channels such as Tubi and Fubo, is expected to repeat the trick. As of December 2024, Tubi boasts 97 million monthly active users.

A Fox sales presentation seen by Digiday emphasized the service’s popularity among viewers aged 18 to 34, particularly women and Latin American audiences.

Mark Zamuner, president of Juice Media, confirmed that his agency was among those that received the “last minute offer” from Fox.

Zamuner said Juice’s clients had considered the investment, but decided against it, citing the lack of time required to create bespoke assets that would make the most of the opportunity. He declined to name the specific clients.

It’s unclear which advertisers, and how many, took Fox up on its offer. But the company appears to have found a willing market. “This is literally the last unit,” read the pitch.

Fox has taken an aggressive approach to shopping its Super Bowl coverage this year, pushing linear ad prices up to as high as $8 million for a 30-second slot for a handful of late entrants, per Adweek reporting.

That strategy appears to have been extended to Tubi. Fox doesn’t break out the platform’s specific ad revenue in its public filings, but its second quarter financial results (released this week due to its 2025 fiscal year) credited the service with helping to drive an ad revenue increase of $308 million, a 19% year-on-year increase.

Fox reportedly sold out of Super Bowl spots well in advance of this weekend on both its linear and streamed coverage. By default, Super Bowl advertisers such as Reese’s Pieces and Squarespace will run ads on both the linear broadcast and on Tubi as part of their deals with Fox.

“To extend the reach of our in-game spot, we look beyond broadcast to streaming platforms to reach new audiences,” Pamela Piccola-Fales, vp of media and acquisition at Squarespace, said in an email.

But Fox didn’t find the additional 15-second Tubi spots behind the sofa. One media buyer with knowledge of routine TV advertising practices, who exchanged anonymity for candor, told Digiday that network executives occasionally found ways to insert additional “pods” of ads in live coverage.

“They’re considered ‘floater’ units,” the buyer explained. “If they reach 100% sell out, and there’s still very high demand, for the right clients the broadcaster that’s carrying the game and the NFL will literally just add more advertising time.”

Fox’s offer of 15-second parcels shows how keen TV execs are to squeeze value out of every second of airtime for advertisers. “It seemed as if they were looking for pockets of air,” said Zamuner.

Given it’s the first time viewers have been able to stream the Super Bowl for free (rather than buying a subscription from Peacock), industry observers expect this year’s Big Game to be a milestone for the format. “It’s one of the first opportunities to think about a FAST approach to a big event,” said Kevin Maloy, vp of advanced TV solutions at ad tech firm Nexxen.

“This will be the most streamed Super Bowl in history,” added Tony Marlow, CMO at LG Ad Solutions.

As a means of advertising against live sporting events, however, streaming platforms like Tubi still lack the scale of linear TV. What they do have, though, is measurability. As such, media buyers noted brand interest in streaming sports is on the rise.

“Nobody’s going to do a write-up tomorrow or next week of the 10 best commercials [they saw on a streaming platform] this weekend,” explained Harry Browne, vp of TV, audio and display innovation at Tinuiti. “But if you care about measurability and direct revenue generation — if that’s important to you and your CFO — then yeah, I would lean towards CTV.”

A spokesperson for Tubi did not respond to requests for comment by the time of publication.