Did you feel like all you saw in the first half of the Super Bowl — well, besides Pittsburgh’s James Harrison taking his interception 100 yards to the house — were commercials? Certainly there were a lot of them. In fact, a record amount of commercial time ran over the entire course of this year’s Super Bowl.

According to a just issued report from TNS Media Intellegence, NBC aired 45 minutes, 10 seconds of advertising messages, including paying sponsors, NFL messages and in-house promotions.

Outside of NBC’s promos, four companies accounted for 40 percent of the total paid ad time: PepsiCo, Anheuser-Busch Inbev, Viacom and General Electric, which, of course, is the majority owner of NBC. But TNS warns not to read too much into the big GE ad buy.

The softening ad market for 2009 Super Bowl spots led to speculation that General Electric divisions might be required to step in and buy unsold inventory to help out sister-company NBC. The movie studio and theme park divisions of GE have regularly advertised in previous Super Bowls on other networks, so it’s far-fetched to construe their presence in the 2009 game as the outcome of an inventory fire-sale.

What’s a ‘normal’ level of in-house ad activity for the Super Bowl broadcaster? The past four years have seen four different networks air the game. During this cycle, the advertising presence of the network’s owner has ranged from 30 seconds to 4-1/2 minutes. GE’s 2009 footprint of 2:30 is larger than either News Corp in 2008 or National Amusements in 2007. However, it lags the 4:30 of air time that Disney-owned entities had in the 2006 telecast on ABC.

(Reuters photo of James Harrison)

The Super Bowl — that little football game that is watched by a few people and attracts a bit of interest from advertisers — has come and gone. Was it a blockbuster year? We’ll let you decide, but clearly companies had more at stake this time around than usual.

Shelling out up to $3 million for a 30-second spot, when each day thousands more people are handed pinkslips, can’t sell their house, can’t stand to open their 401Ks and are in no mood whatsoever to be told by some CMO that they need to rush out and buy some beer or soda or potato chip or whatever is, well, a bit risky.

So how did they do? Take a look at a handful below. Let us know you’re thoughts. After all, you’re the target audience.

When you’re spending up to $3 million for 30 seconds of Super Bowl time, you really, really want to get your money’s worth. So what do you do? Hold press briefings, drag executives out for interviews, hold contests, and, of course, post the commercials on YouTube even before they air on game day. Gone, mostly, are the days when advertisements would actually debut at the Super Bowl.

Fair enough.

So just pretend it’s Sunday and check out some of the big day’s commercials…

Google just keeps on truckin’. The Internet powerhouse posted results yesterday that show advertisers haven’t completely cut their spending — at least not on search.

Excluding one-time charges, profit was $5.10 a share, beating the average analyst forecast of $4.95 according to Reuters Estimates.

Revenue rose 18 percent to $5.7 billion — a shadow of the 50 percent growth levels that Google used to enjoy, but considered by analysts to be a robust performance given the weak economy and corporate cutbacks in advertising spending.

But CEO Eric Schmidt also took pains to keep investors, analysts and the press realistic about the world today: “Now clearly we’re in a worldwide recession as everybody knows, rising unemployment, foreclosures, that sort of thing,” he said on a conference call. “But we don’t know how long this period will last. We obviously hope it will be short.”

Shares of Google were up more than 4 percent in early trade, and analysts offered mostly upbeat responses to the earnings despite Schmidt’s caution.

“We would be buyers of Google shares coming out of 4Q earnings. Macro risks remain, but we think Google grows high-single digits in ‘09 & is among the best-positioned companies to weather the storm,” wrote Barclays analyst Douglas Anmuth, who reiterated an “overweight” rating on the company and set a price target of $460.

You just know this sort of talk drives Steve Ballmer bonkers.

Keep an eye on:

• Tribune Co selected Tom Ricketts, the head of a Chicago investment bank, as the lead bidder for the Chicago Cubs baseball team, after receiving support from the bankrupt media firm’s creditors (Reuters)
• General Electric Co reported a 44 percent drop in quarterly profit, while media division NBC Universal’s profit declined 6 percent as strong cable earnings were offset by declines in the local stations (Reuters)
• The New York Times is in advanced negotiations to sell a substantial portion of its 52-story headquarters building on Eighth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan to W. P. Carey & Company (NY Times)

(Photo: Reuters)

Cash is king for the New York Times right now.

The media world has been swirling with talk about the company looking to sell The Boston Globe and its stake in the Red Sox. Now comes news that the company has told securities regulators that it may sell shares or other securities to raise cash.

Remember, the New York Times has a $400 million credit line due next May. It also is borrowing $225 million against its Manhattan headquarters. The company has made other moves to conserve cash, including cutting its dividend by nearly 75 percent.

But raising cash isn’t all that easy in this environment. Yesterday two Boston businessmen denied they were interested in buying The Boston Globe or the Red Sox stake, and selling shares would only put more pressure on an already depressed stock price. Besides, while cash will buy the New York Times some breathing space, it hardly solves the long-term problems that are crushing the newspaper business.

Here’s the take from Silicon Alley Insider:

Any cash the New York Times raises in the current environment will be outrageously expensive. It’s also hard to imagine that the company will attract much interest from equity investors until it can articulate a plan for long-term survival that involves something other than selling off non-core assets (eventually, it will run out of these).

In our opinion, this plan will need to involve a major restructuring, including a reduction in the size of the company’s editorial operation by at least 40% (and, eventually, more, as the print business wanes).  Based on NYTCo’s response to the crisis to date, however, we suspect management will continue to hope for a miracle.

Keep an eye on:

• Madonna’s “Sticky & Sweet” concert tour was the biggest-grossing music tour of 2008 in North America, raking in $105.3 million, concert tracking magazine Pollstar said (Reuters).
• In a tough year for media, one mogul, John Malone, appears to have salvaged some semblance of value for his shareholders at the expense of another mogul’s shareholders (BreakingViews.com via NYTimes)
• NBC, mired in fourth place in prime time, heads into the final days of 2008 with ratings leads for its morning and evening newscasts (Hollywood Reporter)

(Photo: Reuters)

Since we’re coming up on year’s end, it’s worth a quick review of the television season so far. It has stunk. There. That’s about all you need to know.

Don’t take our word for it, look at the weekly Nielsen numbers that came out yesterday. The lone exception is CBS, which continues to hold up relatively well in the face of all the challenges facing the TV market.

Here’s the Hollywood Reporter’s roundup:

Following its 12th consecutive weekly victory in total viewers, CBS became the first major broadcast network this season to move into positive year-to-year territory since premiere week.

Through Dec. 21, CBS has averaged 12 million viewers, up 1% from last year. NBC, ABC and Fox are each down 9%.

All of the Big Four are still in the red in the adults 18-49 demo, with CBS closest to breaking even at minus 3%.

As we all know by now, everything will probably change on January 13, when American Idol returns to Fox. Perhaps that — or the introduction of midseason shows — will give ratings a broad boost. If not, it’s going to be a long cold winter in the TV business.

Keep an eye on:

• As growth in online advertising slows, some Internet companies are easing the restrictions they impose on the categories and formats of advertising they will accept (WSJ.com)
• FedEx is pulling out of the Super Bowl due to budget worries amid the downturn (NY Post)
• China’s broadcasting watchdog has ordered a crackdown on low-brow confessional talk shows as part of a campaign against base entertainment (Reuters)

(Photo: Reuters)

As the U.S. Labor Department reported a 6.7 percent unemployment rate for November and the largest number of job cuts since 1974, the media and telecom industries are definitely not immune.

As Viacom said it planned to lay off 850 people, or 7 percent of its workforce, NBC revealed layoffs of 500 employees including several longtime news correspondents, according to the New York Times.

RealNetworks also announced 130 layoffs, reducing its headcount by 7.5 percent. AT&T, which is trying its hand at competing against cable providers with its own TV service, on Thursday announced layoffs of 12,000, or 4 percent of its workforce, as the company struggles with declining traditional telephone sales and customers switching to wireless.

According to the New York Times, NBC’s layoffs included Mark Mullen, who served as NBC’s Beijing bureau chief during the Olympics; John Larson, the West Coast correspondent for “Dateline NBC”; and Dallas-based Don Teague.

Keep an eye on

• LA Times looks to cheer us up with a report that Happiness is Contagious.
• Former Microsoft VP Brian McAndrews for Yahoo CEO? - Silicon Alley Insider
• Anna Wintour says has no intention of leaving Vogue editor post- New York Post

(Photo: Reuters)

Are people going to watch more TV because they’ve no money to go out? According to media buying and planning agency MPG — a subsidiary of Havas, the world’s sixth-largest ad firm — the answer is no, unless the TV networks come up with better shows.

“That’s inventory for us, that’s our supply,” MPG Chief Operating Officer Steve Lanzano told the Reuters Media Summit in New York. “The thing is, there are no hit shows out there on the big networks,” he added. “And if there’s no supply in the marketplace, that just makes it harder and harder for us.”

With the economy seizing up and people seeking more stay-at-home entertainment, this could be the perfect time for the big networks to hook people on to some new shows and boost ratings. That would bring in advertising revenue at a time when many advertisers are scaling back spending.

But the networks don’t seem quite up for it yet, Lanzano said. ”"They need hits and nobody has them right now.”

Fox, Lanzano said, was a bit edgier than the others. “Clearly, they have these must-see shows that they’ve been able to promote.”

Meanwhile, CBS — which probably has the largest number of total viewers — could do with some younger programming, Lanzano said. “Have they been able to lower their age a bit?”

As for NBC, “they’ve been fortunate because of Sarah Palin.” Shows like 30 Rock and of course, SNL, have gotten a boost because of Tina Fey’s turn as the former Republican vice-presidential candidate, but with Jay Leno going off the air soon, they might be stuck looking around for another winner.

ABC has done well with younger viewers, but still needs a big audience winner to bring home the big bucks, Lanzano said.

Only the cable channels have met with some success in churning out hit shows, he said. “To some degree you see the breakout hits are on the HBOs and the Showtimes because their hands are not tied.” Cable channels also give their shows more time to grow, unlike the networks, which try too many different things in hopes of a quick hit.

Dimming prospects for an auto bailout spell trouble for the folks on Madison Avenue. Already, sources say that General Motors is taking a hard look at all of its advertising contracts – held by Interpublic and Publicis — to see if they should be renewed as they come up.

That’s a pretty big deal, given that GM forked out about $1 billion in ad spending for the first six months of the year. And overall, domestic automakers spent about $2.8 billion on advertising in the first six months of 2008, down 17 percent, but was still one of the 10 largest U.S. advertising categories.

If you want to know how dependent the advertising industry is on the auto industry, take a look at Advertising Age, which has a in-depth feature on it. The upshot:

If one or more of Detroit’s carmakers goes away, gets smaller or goes into bankruptcy, “all media companies need to be concerned and there will be an impact on agencies, which derive a substantial amount of their income from [Detroit],” warned Bob Liodice, president-CEO of the Association of National Advertisers. “These are substantial, heavyweight players. You’ve got some of the largest marketing spending companies in America.”

Keep an eye on:

• Ziff Davis Media announced Wednesday that it was ending print publication of its 27-year-old flagship, PC Magazine, and would take the title online only (NY Times)
• Ben Silverman, the co-chairman of NBC Entertainment and NBC Universal Television Studio, has joined the board of the Peacock Equity Fund (The Hollywood Reporter)
• Google is shutting down Lively, the virtual world that could be embedded into other Websites (TechCrunch)
• Publicis hopes it can beat the advertising market in terms of revenue growth and margin in 2009 (Reuters)

(Photo: Reuters)

First President-Elect Barack Obama sparked a run on newspapers, and now his appearance on 60 Minutes helped deliver CBS the largest weekly audience of any network this season. The news program, featuring Obama’s first post-election interview, drew more than 25 million viewers, the biggest number since January 1999.

Not surprisingly, that helped CBS win the week in total viewers and in the 18-49 year-old category.  Season-to-date, CBS is tops in total viewers, and essentially tied with ABC for the 18-49 crowd. Here are the Nielsen figures for the week ending Nov 16::

Total Viewers (’000, change from 2007-08)

CBS 12,314, +3 percent

ABC, 10,467, +1 percent

NBC, 7,742, -6 percent

Fox, 6,782, -21 percent

Adults 18-49 (ratings, change from 2007-08)

CBS, 3.3, no change

ABC, 3.1, -9 percent

NBC, 2.9, -6 percent

Fox, 2.7, -21 percent

Week’s Top shows for Adults 18-49 (network, rating)

Sunday Night Football, NBC, 7.4

60 Minutes, CBS, 6.3

Desperate Housewives, ABC, 6.2

Grey’s Anatomy, ABC, 5.7

House, Fox, 5.5

CSI, CBS, 5.1

CMA Awards, ABC, 5.0

Two And A Half Men, CBS, 4.9

Sunday Night NFL Pre-Kick, NBC, 4.6

Dancing With the Stars, ABC, 4.2

Family Guy, Fox, 4.2

How I Met Your Mother, CBS, 4.2

(Photo: Reuters)