Streaming-only Super Bowl ads are gaining traction on NBC’s Peacock channel

The Super Bowl is a major event each year for advertisers eager to get their brands in front of millions of consumers at once. It is also expensive.

That’s why a small subset of ad space for broadcast-only commercials is gaining traction and giving smaller brands time during the biggest TV night of the year.

Comcast Broadcast network NBC will broadcast Super Bowl 60 this year, with the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots facing off from Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California. NBC’s streaming service, Peacock, will simulcast the event. Although live streaming has generally become the popular way to consume content, the Super Bowl is still primarily watched via the broadcast network.

Simulcasts – which gain viewers every year – feature specific advertising spots tailored just for that audience.

Broadcast-only spots make up about 10% of total ad inventory during the Super Bowl and cost about half the cost of traditional TV advertising, said Mark Marshall, NBC’s president of global advertising and partnerships.

“Much cheaper, but not cheap yet,” Marshall said. “And part of it also is that you don’t have a lot of these sites, right? So I think people have picked up on that trick over the last couple of years, and it’s done really well in live streaming. As a result, a lot of people are lining up and wanting to do it.”

Every year, the cost of national Super Bowl advertising breaks a record. NBC sold off its ad inventory for the Super Bowl, averaging $8 million per 30-second ad, with between five and 10 ads selling for more than $10 million each, CNBC previously reported.

Streaming-only ads, which still appear nationally, fill the slots that would host regional commercials during traditional broadcast television.

These sites attract new advertisers outside of mainstays like Budweiser and Lay’s. All of the Peacock-only commercials this year are new advertisers for NBC’s Super Bowl roster, Marshall said. For example, cowboy boot brand Tecovas and family location security app Life360 bought live-only ad spots this year.

Chief marketing officers at both brands cited the impact of the Super Bowl — as well as the hefty cost — in explaining their decision to partner with Peacock.

Tecovas CMO Krista Dalton in an email described the company’s livestream debut as a “deliberate choice,” allowing the brand to have a Super Bowl impact through a “highly interactive environment while remaining disciplined in our investments.”

“Streaming is a great way for us to test what our inclusion at such a massive cultural moment can do for our brand and our business,” Mike Ziman, director of marketing at Life360, said via email. “It allows us to reach a huge, highly engaged audience of modern, connected families with an ‘out of pocket’ investment that doesn’t break the bank or take up too large a percentage of our overall marketing budget.”

Last year, nearly 128 million viewers watched the Super Bowl on TV and via live stream, according to Nielsen.

While NBC has had a digital offering for the last four Super Bowl telecasts, Marshall said more advertisers are vying for the streaming space as the platform reaches 44 million subscribers.

Fittingly, this growth has been largely driven by NBC’s push into live sports. This month, NBC will broadcast the Super Bowl and the Winter Olympics — which begin Friday — along with the NBA All-Star Game. It’s a live sports menu that the company describes as a “legendary February.”

“It’s obviously a huge year for NBC, and Peacock sales have been more sold than usual. We’re seeing a lot of brands leaning into Peacock,” said Doug Palladino of advertising agency PMG.

Paladino noted that brands have seen good results for advertising during Sunday Night Football games simulcast on Peacock, particularly due to the audience targeting capabilities across the live stream.

Broadcast-only commercials can also be a cliffhanger for burgeoning brands that want to get their foot in the door of the big game.

Last year, direct-to-consumer health startup Ro bought its first ad during the Super Bowl Fox Tubi streaming service.

“The results they got out of the Super Bowl for what they paid were much higher than they are at the traditional venue,” said Philipp Engelbrecht, CEO and co-founder of technology company Tatari, which works with brands and advertisers and helped Ro land a live-stream-only advertising slot for 2025.

This year, Ro, which provides access to GLP-1 medications and telehealth appointments, strengthened its commitment to the Super Bowl and purchased a spot on NBC’s traditional broadcast of the game. Tennis star Serena Williams will present the ad.

“Last year, we dipped our toe into Super Bowl advertising with a buy on Tubi. It was a really attractive opportunity for us to understand how our brand and creative performed in that environment,” said Will Flaherty, senior vice president of growth at Ro.

Smaller brands have other affordable options to test the waters, too.

Manscaped, the men’s grooming company, decided to buy a venue before kick-off – a less desirable window of time than during the match itself, but still expensive – to push the next chapter of its business.

“Manscaped is a brand that has been around for a few years now, but we are at this very important moment in our trajectory, which is a big push for products beyond the thigh, which is our first claim to fame,” said Marcelo Curtis, chief marketing officer. “We have something new to deliver to the world.”

“We know it’s the same place

“Just one piece of it, a very important and very expensive piece, but it makes sense for us to do it at this moment. It’s a desire that I think all brands, at some point, have to be on that stage,” Curtis said.