Disney Has Sold Out of Oscars Advertising Inventory Amid Live Event Push

The Oscars are sold out.

The Walt Disney Co. says that this Sunday’s broadcast of the 98th Academy Awards has officially sold out of advertising inventory, marking a major milestone in the company’s live event programming push.

Sponsors relevant to the media business include the streaming service Peacock, Disney Cruise Line and Microsoft, with other sponsors including Starbucks, Rolex and first-time advertiser Burger King.

Advertising rates are said to have grown by double digits compared to last year, with the company also adding some 24 new sponsors, alongside 18 returning sponsors.

The Oscars are the most-watched primetime entertainment program in the country (the only programming that tends to be it is football, major political news or the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade), making it a prized opportunity for big brands. Thirty-second spots for last year’s event ran between $1.7 million and $2.3 million

“The Oscars is one of the key live event specials and tentpoles as part of our live programming overall, which is a core component both for the Walt Disney Company on the programming side, but almost more importantly, a business driver for our clients,” says John Campbell, senior VP of entertainment and streaming solutions for Disney Advertising. “The good news is there’s been four years of consecutive viewership increases, and the Oscars remains the number one primetime entertainment special. For the Oscars this year, when we’re looking at trends, the demand started almost directly after the award show last year and went into the upfront, where we saw more units sold than previous years.”

In fact, Disney says that this year’s Oscars are the sixth consecutive live tentpole event to sell out, including last year’s Oscars, the CMA Awards and Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest.

Campbell says that brands are also increasingly looking for ways to do more than just 30-second spots, with some brands set to get integrated into the program in clever ways, and others seeking to partner on places like Hulu and Disney+, where they can sponsor collections of titles, or on red carpet coverage on TV, streaming or social platforms like TikTok.

“That’s what we hear from CMOs, they want to align with content, with IP,” Campbell says. “They want to maximize these cultural moments, and they want to create deeper connections with these live events and ensure that it’s working.”

That is reflected in what Disney calls its “Proud” and “Silver” sponsors, who gain access to use the Oscars IP in larger brand integrations. Rolex and Burger King are this year’s Proud sponsors, with Campbell saying that streaming revenue is up 76 percent, with social revenue soaring by 46 percent year over year.

And the Oscars will also tee up what is set to be a huge year for Disney in the live event space, including the college football national championship, next year’s Super Bowl, the 99th Oscars and the company’s first-ever broadcast of the Grammy Awards.

“What we’re really excited about is we’re already in rooms with brand partners, thinking about what that looks like, what that creative messaging looks like,” Campbell says. “Are there threads that we can pull with brands? What are some stunts we might be able to work on within that eight-week timeframe? So getting ahead of these live specials is really, really important, especially when they want meaningful brand integrations.”