The NFL wants musicians to pay to play the Super Bowl halftime show


As the most-watched TV event every year, the Super Bowl is the best — if most expensive — advertising opportunity on air. Realizing that it had not yet monetized every single aspect of the game, the NFL reportedly asked musicians interested in playing the 2015 Super Bowl if they would give the league a cut of their post-Bowl income in exchange for landing the gig, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The NFL has narrowed down the list of potential performers for the 2015 Super Bowl to three candidates: Rihanna, Katy Perry, and Coldplay, these people said. While notifying the artists' camps of their candidacy, league representatives also asked at least some of the acts if they would be willing to contribute a portion of their post-Super Bowl tour income to the league, or if they would make some other type of financial contribution, in exchange for the halftime gig. [Wall Street Journal]
The NFL hauls in around $9 billion annually in revenue. That said, if the reported list of candidates for the halftime show is legit, then I'm with the NFL on this one: You'd have to pay me to watch Coldplay perform, too.
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Jon Terbush is an associate editor at TheWeek.com covering politics, sports, and other things he finds interesting. He has previously written for Talking Points Memo, Raw Story, and Business Insider.
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