CBS said on Tuesday that it had sold all the available commercial time for the broadcast of Super Bowl XLVII on Feb. 3, unless a marketer wants so much to be included that money is no object. According to estimates by agency executives, CBS has sold most of its Super Bowl spots for an average of $3.7 million to $3.8 million for each 30 seconds. (By comparison, the average for Super Bowl XLVI, broadcast by NBC on Feb. 5, 2012, was $3.5 million.) Leslie Moonves, chairman and chief executive of the CBS Corporation, made the announcement at an event at the CBS Broadcast Center on the West Side of Manhattan that was billed as Super Bowl XLVII Media Day. Mr. Moonves, as Stuart Elliott reports, said room could still be found to include commercials for movie studios — which often wait somewhat longer than other marketers to decide whether to buy Super Bowl commercials — but at a price. “If one of those movie companies wants to come in and pay five or six million,” he said, “we will find room.”

“Downton Abbey” drew an impressive 7.9 million viewers for its third season premiere on Sunday, but what remains to be seen is whether those viewers will come back for six more Sundays in a row. Even more uncertain is whether PBS can capitalize on the sudden rush of interest by raising pledges from new viewers. As Brian Stelter reports, though, producers and PBS executives are feeling optimistic. “Masterpiece,” a co-producer of “Downton” with the British company Carnival Films, is already thinking about how to promote its next series, “Mr. Selfridge,” which starts in March. And Paula Kerger, chief executive of PBS, said other stations across the country, some of which organized viewing parties for the “Downton” premiere, are “trying to remind people what else is on public TV.” Sunday’s premiere exceeded expectations and catapulted PBS above commercial broadcasters like ABC and NBC. Craig Reed of TRAC Media Services, a consultant for public television stations, said that ratings preformance is “significant and encouraging for PBS, because it demonstrates that in this day and age a niche broadcaster can still have an impact on the national psyche.”

HBO is hoping that the second season premiere of its series “Enlightened” will prove to be a breakout moment. The show, about Amy Jellicoe, a self-involved do-gooder played by Laura Dern, failed to gain an audience in its first season. By Nielsen’s figures, 210,000 viewers watched the Season 1 premiere. The audience sank to 190,000 viewers in its second episode, making it among the lowest-rated shows on HBO. The series has a strong backer, though, in Sue Naegle, president of HBO Entertainment. As Amy Chozick reports, Ms. Naegle and other HBO executives have stuck by the show’s quixotic tale of workplace suffocation. The series was created by Mike White and Ms. Dern. “Sometimes shows don’t get good numbers and it’s because the message is cloudy or they struggled creatively,” Ms. Naegle said. “But this one deserved another year, another chance.” The second season of “Enlightened” will have its premiere on Sunday after the Season 2 opener of the more talked-about “Girls,” whose Season 1 premiere drew 872,000 viewers.

Article source: http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/09/the-breakfast-meeting-super-bowl-ads-and-a-bet-by-hbo-on-enlightened/?partner=rss&emc=rss