$11,500 a Second Will Buy . . . Spot on Oscarcast

Ratings for the Oscars may have been shaky the last few years, but the cost of airing commercials on the telecast has risen steadily.

National advertisers paid $11,500 a second for time on tonight’s ABC show, according to one network source. Two years ago, the tab was $10,000 a second.

The Academy Awards have never commanded the price of a Super Bowl (almost $21,700 a second or $650,000 per 30-second spot this year), but for Oscar night, “the ratings almost don’t matter,” another source said. “The easiest special to sell is the Academy Awards. Advertisers snap it up.”

Cost of a national 30-second ad, which will be aired by all 220 ABC affiliates, has jumped to $345,000 this year; it was $275,000 in 1985 and $325,000 last year, according to sources. There will be 10 national commercial breaks, none expected to last longer than two minutes each, one executive indicated. Eight major sponsors each spent $2.1 million for three minutes of total air time, said one source.

Revlon will open the show for the 14th straight year, touting makeup, fragrances and skin-care products. McDonald’s will debut a “special surprise” in its first 90-second commercial in a decade, one company executive promised.

General Electric will devote two minutes to a “multi-vignette” embracing plastics, aircraft engines, light bulbs, washing machines and aerospace products. J.C. Penney, will push jewelry and apparel. AT&T; will “reach out and touch someone” more than once.

Interspersed will be commercials from 18 local sponsors, at a cost of $69,000 per 30-second spot in Los Angeles, a station executive said.