Wow - I'm in the industry, control a sizeable budget for a large corporation that spends quite a bit specifically on professional sports sponsorships, and even for me this is a lot of money for 30 seconds of exposure. I will be surprised if the majority of the partakers are NOT beer, fast food, automobile manufacturers, and wireless providers. A lot of players in a lot of other industries will try to afford it, but I don't know how they can without the immediate retail/return capabilities these other categories include.

The almost 98 million viewers last year was the perfect storm: 2 MAJOR markets, the quest for perfection, a heart-throb QB, another QB trying to emerge from his brothers shadow, 2 MAJOR markets (I know - I repeated it for emphasis) - and the ratings got better after the first half as folks realized the Giants were sticking around and could win it.

If it ends up Buffalo vs. Minnesota, watch out - that $3M/30 sec. will be awfully expensive.