By Jack November 29, 1999 12:28 PM
Demand by Internet companies for TV ad time is expected to push the price of a Super Bowl commercial past $2 million, about 25 percent higher than the 1999 rate, the New York Times reported today (Monday).?The newspaper also observed that a "dot-com," the E*Trade Group, has purchased sponsorship of the halftime show.?For many Internet companies, the plunge into big-time TV spending may be a life-or-death move, the newspaper indicated, quoting Gene DeWitt, president of DeWitt Media in New York, as saying, "There's a kind of desperation to it." According to Tony Ponturo of Anheuser-Busch, ad spending by Web firms are likely to surpass even those of beer companies this year.?