The Astros-Phillies World Series delivered just over 5.87 billion TV ad impressions on Fox this year, down 7.7% from the six-game Braves-Astros set last year, notes SBJ research guru David Broughton, who combed through data from iSpot.tv.

Activision spent $17.8 million promoting the release of Modern Warfare II on national linear sports telecasts, according to an SBJ analysis of iSpot.tv data, with 96% of that running during NFL programming. Fox has been the beneficiary of 40% of the airing

On the TV side, Activision Blizzard even splurged for Overwatch 2 ads during the expensive TV real estate around "Monday Night Football" this week. The estimated cost for the 15-second spot, which aired across ABC, ESPN and ESPN2 (which carried the ManningCast), totaled over $535,000, per data from iSpot.tv.

Geico became the league’s biggest TV advertiser ($6.2 million), according to iSpot.tv data, and its NHL-themed ‘‘The Lamps” commercial generated more than 58 million impressions despite not debuting until the playoffs began.

For its part, Verizon tripled its ad spend during NHL telecasts last season (to $4.5 million), compared to the 2020-21 season, and aired about 500 ads (a fivefold increase), according to SBJ’s analysis of iSpot.tv data.

“They have a tremendous amount of players under contract (around 20% of MLB) and they want to get closer to the game and tell their story,” said MLB CRO Noah Garden, adding that he expects New Balance to start utilizing its new rights at or just before the postseason.

My colleague David Broughton cites iSpot.tv data as showing that $2.51 million of the $11.1 million that New Balance spent across all TV advertising over the last year was dedicated to national MLB programming (compared to 45% for the NBA). The brand spent just $44,000 during baseball telecasts in the 12 months before that (July 2020-July 2021).

Geico was the biggest advertiser during nationally televised MLB games during the first half of the season, according to iSpot.TV data. The insurer was the league's biggest advertiser over the course of the 2021 season, spending $16.2M. Telecasts this season have generated a total of $57.5M leading up to the break. Additionally, 86 brands combined to spend an estimated $9.6M during Monday night's T-Mobile Home Run Derby and Tuesday's All-Star Game (not included in the charts below).

Advertisers returned to nationally televised NBA games in a big way this season, as the spend on those telecasts was up 114% from the COVID-shortened '20-21 season, according to an analysis of data from iSpot.TV. A full 82-game season led more brands to get in on increased advertising in '21-22 (even with increased primetime TV ad rates), translating to an estimated ad spend of $449.6M on nationally-aired NBA games, up from $209.8M last season with 72 games (that's a 14% uptick in game inventory).

Reggie Miller is back promoting Wendy's during March Madness, notes Ad Age. Data from iSpot.tv shows Wendy's was the 15th highest spender on TV ads during the men's event across CBS, truTV, TBS and TNT ($18.7 million). The QSR ranked No. 11 in terms of ad spend during the women's tourney across ABC, ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPN ($145,179).