NEW YORK (CNM) -- It may be the most expensive half-minute of the millennium. Television executives say Internet start-ups have bought nearly half the commercial time in January's championship football broadcast, at an average price of $2.2 million per 30 seconds.

Championship game ads have become a dot-com status symbol

Among the buyers are an online pet-supply store, a Web site that sells office furniture, and NetSpud.com, a potato-delivery company that has not yet gone public. "Brand is everything," said NetSpud's marketing director. "Potatoes are secondary."

Advertising executives say some of the start-ups are spending most of the money they raised from venture capitalists on the single ad. "It is a bold strategy," one said. "Boldness is what they are selling."