NEW YORK (AP) - TV networks are wrapping up their advance prime time
ad-selling season this year earlier than many had expected, despite predictions
that the actors strike and a weak economy would stunt sales. Ad-buying
commitments edged higher from last year, but only after some networks sold more
ad time.
The annual 'upfront' marketplace wrapped up in just a few weeks, with most
networks winding down their advance sales for next fall's season this week.
Networks sell about three-quarters of their ad sales in advance packages at this
time of year, shortly after they announce their fall lineups.
Mike Shaw, the president of sales and marketing for ABC, a unit of The Walt
Disney Co., said Tuesday that this year's marketplace went more smoothly than
last year in part because advertisers were becoming more comfortable with a new
set of TV ratings data, which are being used across the board for only the
second year.
Those ratings have two important changes from previous data: Including
viewers who watch a show played back within three days on digital video
recorders, and selling ads based on how many people are actually watching the
commercials, instead of the average rating for a whole show.
Many advertisers had assumed people with digital video recorders would skip
through most or all the commercials, but research is showing that around half
still watch the ads. That's an advantage broadcasters can play up over other
media that don't have as precise audience measurements, Shaw said, such as radio
or newspapers.
"You're paying someone on whether or not they saw your commercial," Shaw
said. "It makes television as an industry more accountable" to advertisers'
demands for greater accuracy in measuring audiences, he said.
Shaw acknowledged that the 14-week writers strike caused ABC hardship in the
ratings, but said strong pricing in the post-upfront "scatter" market over the
past year helped this year's advance ad sales move quickly.
ABC sold about $2.5 billion in advance advertising commitments this year, up
from about $2.4 billion last year, but part of the boost came from selling out
more of its inventory of ad spots -- about 80 to 85 percent this year versus 77
to 82 percent last year.
General Electric Co.'s NBC, meanwhile, sold about $1.9 billion in
commitments this year, up about $100 million from a year ago, but again because
of selling more product. NBC sold about 80 percent of its inventory, about 3 to
4 percentage points higher than last year, people familiar with the situation at
NBC said. Both ABC and NBC include some sports sales in their figures.
CBS Corp., which lost the title of most-viewed network this past season to
News Corp.'s Fox, took in about $2.5 billion in ad commitments this year,
roughly on par with last year's commitments of $2.45 billion to $2.5 billion.
The portion of ad inventory sold was roughly the same as last year, and CBS's
figures don't include sports or other categories such as late night.
Fox, which clinched the No. 1 overall viewership title this year, didn't
comment on its advance ad sales beyond a brief one-line statement saying: "Fox
has concluded our prime time upfront sales at volume and pricing levels
consistent with the No. 1 network."
The CW, a struggling new network co-owned by CBS Corp. and Time Warner
Inc.'s Warner Bros. studio, saw a sharp drop this year, with commitments ranging
from $350 million to $375 million, versus $575 million to $600 million last
year, according to a person familiar with the situation who declined to be named
because the negotiations are private.
However that network also lost one-third of its program hours after
outsourcing five hours of its Sunday night programming to an outside company.
The CW also sold slightly more of its inventory this year.
Brad Adgate, senior vice president for research at Horizon Media Inc., a
privately held advertising-buying firm, said the marketplace performed better
than the worst-case scenarios some analysts had predicted. To be sure, a
weakening economy helped dampen those expectations, as did the writers strike,
which caused an overall 7 percent downturn in ratings, Adgate said.
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