Wednesday, August 20, 2014

NFL Wants Artists To Pay To Play Super Bowl Haltime

The National Football League doesn't usually pay the act that performs at halftime during the Super Bowl.

But in a twist this year, according to The Wall Street Journal, the league has asked artists under consideration for the high-profile gig to pay to play, according to people familiar with the matter.

The NFL has narrowed down the list of potential performers for the 2015 Super Bowl to three candidates: Rihanna, Katy Perry, and Coldplay

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.

The pay-to-play suggestion got a chilly reception from the candidates' representatives, these people said.

It is unclear how much money the NFL was seeking, and whether it would likely have amounted to more or less than the extra income the chosen performer might stand to generate from the exposure.

The Super Bowl halftime show, which this year featured the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Bruno Mars, drew a record 115.3 million viewers in February, according to the NFL, more than the game itself. The entire event averaged 112.2 million viewers, according to Nielsen. That was more than double the size of the audience for the Academy Awards this year, more than triple the audience for this year's Grammy Awards and more than 11 times the size of MTV's most recent Video Music Awards.

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