Report: Top 50 Ad Spenders in Sport include UFC sponsors

Sports Business Journal reports the biggest ad spenders in sports for last year as compiled by Nielsen Research.  The UFC has four companies in the top 50 and only one (Anheuser Busch at number 2) is an official sponsor of the UFC.

Direct TV(12), Best Buy (43) and Miller Coors (7) appear in the top 50 and are or have been sponsors in the UFC.  Direct TV and Best Buy came on this year when UFC moved to Fox/FX/Fuel.  Verizon tops the list supplanting AB (the former number 1) as the the top spender with $345,438,719 for 2011.   Verizon, an official sponsor of the NFL and NHL, dedicates 22.7% of its total ad spending on sports.  AB dedicates 65.7% of its total ad spending on sports but has decreased its sports ad spending by 16% since 2010.

AT&T Mobility, Ford, Chevrolet, Toyota, MillerCoors, Sprint, Southwest Airlines and Geico round out the top 10.

Via Sports Business Journal (subscription required):

The spending information is based on standard rate-card prices for specific national and regional live and taped sports broadcasts on English and Spanish networks.

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The sports advertising market continues to be robust. Advertisers spent more than $3 billion on televised sports during the first three months of 2012, up 9 percent over the same time last year, according to Nielsen.

Payout Perspective:

Aside from the sponsors we mention above, the UFC does not have any other top 50 advertisers yet.  With the article painting the sports ad market as “robust,” we could see the UFC getting a couple sponsors in the top 50 as its Fox relationship continues.  The article indicated that the wireless sector continues to grow which is probably why the UFC grabbed MetroPCS as a sponsor.  It would be interesting to know if the UFC had targeted other wireless companies before MetroPCS.  Also, with a lot of automotive sponsors out there, when will the UFC be able to garner an automotive sponsor?