Madison Avenue is getting nervous about the growing race rift threatening to engulf the Oscars.
Ad buyers are fretting that this year’s Academy Awards telecast will be tarnished by controversy and, along with it, their pricey ad buys.
Broadcaster ABC took in $110 million in 2015, charging as much as $1.83 million for a single 30-second spot. This year advertisers are ponying up as much as $2.2 million for the third-most expensive live event on TV, after the Super Bowl and this weekend’s NFC Championship game, according to Kantar Media.
For the past two years, there have been no people of color in the nominee lineup, spawning growing calls for a boycott. Director Spike Lee and actors Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith aren’t attending the event.
Retailer Kohl’s has planned an elaborate marketing campaign as the lead Oscar sponsor, replacing JCPenney. It has also created a Facebook game for fans to vote for their favorite nominees. Kohls declined to comment.
But ad sources told The Post that while there will be no discounts or rebates for ads bought this year, ABC will feel the pain during negotiations over next year’s show. Those talks typically start the day after the Oscars, set to air Feb. 28.
ABC may not be able to jack up the price — typically the cost per ad has risen around $200,000 a pop — as it has done in past years.
If buyers hold firm, the network could be out an estimated $10 million.
“What does it say about the value going forward? There is not a brand who doesn’t care about that audience [African Americans],” one ad buyer said. “ABC is obviously concerned; they don’t like the way it’s played out but they can’t say too much.”
The source said ABC was not at fault: “It’s up to the Academy to sort this out.”
On Friday, Cheryl Boone Isaacs, the African American president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, whose members chose the Oscar nominees, said the association would change its membership rules to increase diversity.
Another source said organizers are also feeling anxious about how comic Chris Rock will address the issue as Oscar host.
On Tuesday, Al Sharpton was the first to call for a boycott, suggesting a national TV “tune-out.”
“If major advertisers know that people are tuning out and the ratings are down, that will impact the bottom line of the value of the Academy and the Academy has to, at some point, determine whether or not it is in their interest to continue excluding people and excluding them at what price,” he said.
Just 2.6 million African Americans watched last year, when “Birdman” took Best Picture, down from 5.2 million viewers the year before, when “12 Years a Slave” won, according to Nielsen figures.
“Will there be an impact on ratings?” said one ad buyer. “There is a concern that it may require make-good weight,” or extra airtime given to advertisers when guaranteed ratings aren’t hit.
ABC declined to comment.