American Idol Offers Hefty Price Tag to Sponsors

AT&T, Coca-Cola and Ford have all signed up again as primary sponsors for American Idol but it's not without a hefty price tag. Each company is paying about $35 million for commercial time, online content, co-branding and to be featured during the show.

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Sponsors paid about $30 million for the same package last year. FOX has the advantage with the writers strike sending most programs into reruns already, meaning no new shows right before February's all-important Nielsen ratings.