NEW YORK - With just days to spare, Fox has sold out all available commercial time in Sunday's Super Bowl telecast at an average price of just under $2 million per 30-second ad. <br>
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Fox sold the last of the 60 commercial spots available in the game on Thursday afternoon, according to Fox spokesman Lou D'Ermilio. <br>
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He said about 32 different sponsors bought the in-game Super Bowl ads. <br>
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The Super Bowl telecast of the NFL championship game typically draws television's biggest audience of the year and its ads carry TV's highest price tags. <br>
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But this year's average price is down from the revised $2.1 million average that industry insiders say CBS got for half-minute ads a year ago. <br>
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Both prices are below the record $2.2 million average for a 30-second spot that ABC said it got in 2000, when dot-com advertisers bought 40 percent of the commercial time. The dot-com bust later that year saw many fail, and some who survived have not been back. <br>
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This year's ad sellout came later than usual as the economic slowdown, a pullback in ad spending and competition for advertising budgets from the Winter Olyumpics which start five days later depressed demand. <br>
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But D'Ermilio said Fox sold its last in-game ad a day sooner than when the network last telecast the NFL championship game three years ago. <br>
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Sunday's game matches the New England Patriots against the heavily-favored St. Louis Rams and is being played in New Orleans. <br>
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The sponsors include the Super Bowl regulars like brewer Anheuser-Busch and Pepsi and several movie studios. Others include apparel brands Levis and Dockers, financial services concerns E-Trade, Charles Schwab and Visa, fast-food chains Taco Bell, Quizno's and Subway, as well as delivery giant FedEx Corp. <br>
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The White House is airing a pair of commercials warning that buying illegal drugs could finance international terrorists. <br>
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