Pizza Hut is slicing out a venue that has long been a favorite place for its commercials, exiting the hours ahead of the Super Bowl, where it has spent years running commercials urging people to order pies, wings and more.
The Yum Brands restaurant chain is not expected to appear in ad breaks during pre-game programming on NBC, according to two people familiar with the matter. Pizza Hut did not respond to a query seeking comment. NBC will telecast Super Bowl LX, which will feature the Seattle Seahawks squaring off against the New England Patriots on February 8.
Pizza Hut has been a Super Bowl pre-game mainstay, running commercials for its menu for at least a decade, according to data from iSpot, a tracker of ad-spending data. Its ties to pre-game coverage go back even further. In 2006, for example, Pizza Hut gained notice for a Super Bowl pre-game commercial that featured Jessica Simpson and the Muppet Miss Piggy feuding over a decision to wear the same outfit.
The cheese-and-bread chain ran 12 Super Bowl pre game ads in 2016 on CBS, according to iSpot, and aired as many as 20 on Fox in 2020 before pulling back in recent years. In 2023, Pizza Hut ran 14 ads during Fox’s pre-game coverage, then 10 in 2024 on CBS. Last year, the company ran just seven pre-game Super Bowl commercials in Fox’s programming, including ads featuring Howie Long, Rob Gronkowski and the NFL’s Ashton Jeanty in vignettes designed especially for the day by the network.
Thirty-second commercials during early-day pre-game programming typically go for around $100,000 to $200,000, according to executives familiar with negotiations around the coverage, and get pricier the closer they air to the start of the football spectacular. NBC has been seeking as much as $5 million for ads that air just before kickoff, according to a person familiar with the matter.
There’s probably not much of a mystery bubbling around the pizza plaza’s sudden crustiness toward the Super Bowl. In November, Yum Brands said it had launched a strategic review around Pizza Hut operations, with CEO Chris Turner citing “the need to take additional action to help the brand realize its full value, which may be better executed outside” of the corporation. Pizza Hut is likely to be on the ground on Super Bowl Sunday, teaming up with Barstool Sports at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California, where the Big Game will be played.
Pizza is not what it once was among American eaters, notes Kevin Schimpf, senior director of industry research at Technomic, a foodservice-industry consultancy. “Consumers have redirected more of their dollars away from some of the ‘legacy’ categories like ‘pizza’ and ‘sandwich,’ and are now putting them towards chicken, Mexican, and other types of cuisine,” he says.
Pizza continues to sell, according to Technomic data, but Pizza Hut’s share of the overall market has been shrinking. In 2019, Pizza Hut controlled 19.4% of an estimated $28.7 billion spent on pizza chains, according to Technomic. In 2025, the consultancy estimates Pizza Hut controlled 15.4% of a market valued at $33.5 billon. Pizza sales have remained flat in recent years, but one rival, Domino’s, ahs managed to increase its share of the overall pie.
Pizza Hut still likes football. The chain earlier in January unveiled a new ad campaign starring football great Tom Brady, who has been touting a new $10 deal for the chain’s 16-inch Big New Yorker pizza. The idea is to get consumers to think of Pizza Hut “for the biggest games of the year.” But not necessarily in the pre-game show leading up to the biggest game of the year.
The company is also seeking out other sports, according to people familiar with some of its plans. Fans of the NCAA’s March Madness college-basketball tournament can probably expect to see Pizza Hut commercials tied to those games, these people said. Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery have the rights to that annual event. Pizza Hut has clearly found a new way to cut its advertising pie.
Viewers who tune into NBC’s Super Bowl pre-game looking for pizza ads will be disappointed, according to one of the people familiar with the matter. No other pizza advertiser has replaced Pizza Hut in similar fashion.
English (US) ·