All 62 commercial slots for the Super Bowl on Feb. 7 will be sold well in advance of the game -- just four remained this week, albeit at slightly lower prices than last year, according to The Associated Press (details lower in this post), and one will feature Pittsburgh Steelers safety Troy Polamalu promoting "NFL Full Contact,""Full Contact" promises a behind-the-scenes view of pro football, and truTV officials tout it as a perfect fit for the young male demographic the channel, formerly Court TV, is attempting to attract.
Keep in mind, though, that "Full Contact" will be a league-approved look at the show behind the show -- not anything reminiscent of "Playmakers," the 2003 series on ESPN that lasted for just 11 episodes before pressure from the NFL forced the all-sports network to pull the dramatic series about a pro football league that focused on drama and violence the NFL did not want associated with its game.
NFL Films has produced "Full Contact," and that means the access should be great and the images will be stunning but any drama will be mostly contrived. Expect to get behind the scenes, as much as allowed, of the league's big events (including the season-opening game from last fall in Pittsburgh and halftime of the Super Bowl) rather than inside the locker room or front office with a team. Access along those lines will come for people who watch annual "Hardknocks" efforts on HBO that follow teams through training camp.
The Polamalu ad will air in the second quarter of the Super Bowl, before the two-minute warning -- not surprisingly a good ad spot for show the league produced.
Really, "Full Contact" just provides another, slightly different outlet for the NFL to get its product on another network. Chalk it up as another savvy move by some of the best marketers in all of sports. Just do not expect it to be an earth-shattering show. Entertaining? Yes, but probably not much more. And, at 10 p.m. Mondays, when CBS's lineup of comedy ends, and since it's the off-season for "Monday Night Football," it might be worth watching.
In terms of Super Bowl commercials overall, TNS Media Intelligence reported that CBS ad rates for 30 seconds have dropped to about $2.5 to $2.8 million, down from last year's NBC record of $3 million. It's always a big day for advertisers because the most-watched event of the year means money. In 2009, ad revenue for the game totaled $213 million, a 14 percent increase from $186.3 million in 2008. which will debut Feb. 8 on truTV.