Top ads, news from NFL’s biggest game

For the first time ever, Unilever plans to run three separate ads during this year’s big game, showing the British company’s increased focus on the U.S. as the center of its growth strategy.

The consumer giant will air spots for Hellmann’s, Dove and Liquid I.V. While they represent only three brands out of the hundreds owned by the company, each represents a distinct product category that is important to its U.S. business: food, personal care and wellbeing.

The U.S. currently accounts for more than a fifth of Unilever’s sales, according to company filings. About 95% of U.S. households use at least one of Unilever’s products, according to the company.

But the company’s big Super Bowl bet shows that it isn’t content with those numbers, and it is counting on the game’s massive audience to buy its products after seeing the spots.

“I do think the nation stops to a degree when the Super Bowl comes together,” said Herrish Patel, President of Unilever USA and CEO of the company’s North American personal care division. “Eighty percent of that [audience of] 127 million actually watch the commercials.”

— Amelia Lucas

Heading into the big game, prediction market platforms Kalshi and Polymarket had contracts open for the big event, including around the advertising slate for the broadcast.

Some of those trades include whether Salesforce, Verizon or Coca-Cola, for example, would advertise this year, along with more nuanced predictions like, “Who will appear in a big game ad before Feb 9, 2026?” Those options ranged from Sydney Sweeney to Harry Styles and more.

And of course, users can wager on traditional football outcomes like most rushing yards.

Prediction markets have skyrocketed in popularity in recent months, prompting critics to say the industry is unregulated and the offerings amount to little more than illegal betting.

Kalshi and Polymarket maintain their products do not constitute gambling and that they have consumer protections in place.

– Laya Neelakandan, Alex Sherman and Contessa Brewer

NFL regular season games scored big in 2025.

Live sports often eclipse most other programming on TV for the biggest audiences, most especially the NFL.

This season was no different. NFL games averaged 18.7 million viewers per game on traditional TV and digital platforms — up 10% from the prior year, according to Nielsen — marking the second-most-watched NFL season on record.

Two of the matchups with the biggest viewership came in Week 13 of the season: 57.3 million average viewers tuned in for Kansas City vs. Dallas, while Green Bay vs. Detroit garnered 47.7 million.

Meanwhile the rematch between Super Bowl opponents Philadelphia and Kansas City garnered 33.8 million viewers.

— Lillian Rizzo

NBCUniversal is having itself a “Legendary February,” as the Comcast media unit works to establish itself as a frontrunner in the sports streaming space.

In additional to airing Super Bowl 60, NBC is also broadcasting (and streaming) the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics, and next week, it will air the NBA All-Star game as part of the media company’s new NBA media rights deal.

Still, NBC and Peacock aren’t meant to be sports-only platforms, according to Comcast co-CEO Mike Cavanagh.

“Have you watched ‘Stumble’? Have you watched ‘St. Denis [Medical]’? We don’t want to be a sports-only service. That’s not the plan,” he said in a recent interview.

Read more about NBC’s push into live sports.

Disclosure: CNBC parent Versant is carrying NBC Sports-produced Olympic coverage on its networks, including USA Network and CNBC.

– Laya Neelakandan and Alex Sherman