Super Bowl: $3 million for a 30-second spot

CBS has sold all the advertising spots for the Super Bowl game this coming Sunday between the New Orleans Saints and the Indianapolis Colts. The television network said the price for a 30-second commercial was close to $3 million. The game typically includes more than 60 spots.

"There's still a lot to be said for live events that generate general interest," Jo Ann Ross, president of sales for CBS, told CNN.

The Super Bowl is the biggest advertising event of the year in the US. The game draws around 95 million viewers, more of whom enjoy the ads than the action on the field, a recent Nielsen study found. Ad agency Venables, Bell & Partners said that 66 per cent of viewers remembered their favourite ad from the 2009 Super Bowl, but only 39 per cent recalled which team won.

CBS has been criticized for allowing a conservative Christian group to present an anti-abortion ad on Sunday, and for barring a spot from a dating site for gay men. Women's groups urged the network not to air an ad by Focus on the Family, but CBS approved the spot. Last week, however, it rejected an ad from Mancrunch as inappropriate. It also rejected a slogan for the new Dante's Inferno video game: instead of "Go to hell", the network insisted on "Hell awaits."