The Super Bowl may be nine months away, but Fox is already seeking advertisers to buy spots on the most expensive air time in broadcasting by offering to host the ads on a special area of MySpace, the popular social networking Web site.
Fox and MySpace, which are both owned by News Corp., the global media conglomerate controlled by Rupert Murdoch, said Thursday they are teaming up with the NFL to offer the ads so they can be viewed and shared by MySpace users.
The site, www.myspace.com/superbowlads, would also be promoted on Fox’s broadcast of the big game, which is airing on Feb. 3, 2008. The Super Bowl is routinely the most-watched event on television during the year, and this year CBS Corp. sold 30-second spots for as high as $2.6 million.
Online viewing of Super Bowl ads has boomed in recent years, and even with MySpace’s large audience, there will be several other online destinations competing for viewership of the ads, including Google Inc.’s YouTube; the Web sites of various advertisers; Time Warner Inc.’s AOL; and IFilm, which is part of Viacom Inc.’s MTV Networks unit.