NEW YORK: Experts have reported strong competition for Super Bowl ads, with overall viewership forecast to increase and 30 second spots costing advertisers up to $3m (€2.2m, £1.9m).

Kantar Media research suggests that total ad revenue from the event will reach $200m for the third year in a row, despite the downwards pressure on budgets exerted by the global economic slowdown.

Moreover, the total ad time allocated within the Super Bowl broadcast was found to have increased over the course of the last decade.

A total of 47 minutes and 50 seconds of 2010's broadcast were given over to promotional messages of some kind, up 18% from 2001.

The New York Times reports that Fox, the 2011 Super Bowl's broadcaster, has sold all of this year's available ad slots at a rate of $2.8-$3m per 30 seconds.

In 2001, Kantar says, the rate was just $2.2m.

Speaking to the newspaper, Nick Hutton, a cmo for financial services firm E*Trade, one of this year's Super Bowl advertisers, said viewing figures for the game could hit 110m.

Nielsen figures show the 2010 Super Bowl attracted 106.5m viewers, an all-time high.

The game is "the only event of the year where advertising is not the uninvited guest," Hutton said.

"[When] commercials come on, people stop talking."

Data sourced from New York Times/Ad Week/Mediapost; additional content by Warc staff