»
The broadcast networks estimate that the total revenue for the upfront market this year was similar to overall revenues last year - about $9 billion - writes MediaPost. While final totals have been reported - ABC at $2.3 billion, CBS at $2.3 billion, NBC at $1.9 billion, Fox at $1.8 billion, The CW at $650 million, and My Network TV (which isn’t quite finished) expected to pull in $50 million - some media buying executives are insisting that these numbers are too high.
One media agency exec said that as much as $600 million is sitting on the sidelines or is actually designated for digital advertising, but Mike Shaw, president of advertising sales at ABC, said the digital claim isn’t the case. In fact, he said, ABC didn’t sell broadband or VOD in the upfront, but he added that some ABC.com and ABCNews.com extensions were included in the upfront deals.
A number of marketers, such as Johnson & Johnson, sat out the upfront this season, while others have held back some money in order to take advantage of digital opportunities that may arise later in the year, writes AdAge. Those that have sat out may take advantage of the scatter market. While generally there is a price penalty for buying in the scatter market, last year marketers weren’t “burned by buying scatter,” said Shaw - though ABC claimed it received increases of 10 percent or more in last year’s scatter market.
The slow upfront market this year - taking four weeks to complete as opposed to the two- and three-day upfronts of years ago - was needed by the networks in order to hit their overall revenue goals. If the networks sold the amount of advertising they were hoping, that should mean a healthy scatter market for them, as less inventory typically means higher prices.
Prior coverage on this year’s upfront:
Thursday Nights Most Competitive This Fall
NBC Upfront Closed, with $1.9 Billion Take
Slow Network Upfront Affects Syndication, Cable
Merrill Upfront Projection Revised From Flat to -1
ABC Price Hikes Highest in Upfront
Upfront Halfway Mark Nears, ABC Beginning to Move
Chernin: Fox Sold 70 Percent of Upfront Inventory
Starcom/Turner Entertainment Sign $150 Million Upfront Deal
Upfront Update: NBC May Roll Back Pricing, ABC Inks No Deals Yet
Merrill Lynch Bullish on Upfront Projections
MTV, OMD Sign First Major Cable Deal of Upfront
CW Snags Advertisers at Slightly Higher than WB Levels Last Year
Upfront Deals at 2 to 4 Percent CPM Bumps
The Spanish Radio Association says Arbitron still has not addressed its concerns and research questions regarding the PPM and how “Hispanics are recruited and represented, and how the PPM panel is maintained.”
The SRA has been working with Arbitron in…
The Chicago Tribune’s new design will launch on Sept. 29, Tribune Co. chief operating officer Randy Michaels says. No details on the redesign have been released; the paper has already been decreasing its editorial pages to create a more even split…
Teens are not the best demo to target with cell phone advertising, according to a new study from comScore. Though they are cell phone-savvy, most of them - 70 percent - have their phones paid for by parents, which means…
CNN won its second night of coverage of the Democratic National Convention Tuesday. The network averaged 3.41 million viewers in the 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. time slot, despite the fact that Fox drew nearly even for the night.
Fox…
Generation Y is the most self-indulgent, Generation X is the most innovative, and Boomers are the most productive, while the “Silent Generation” and the “Greatest Generation” are the most admired, according to a recent survey by Harris Interactive, writes MarketingCharts.
Conducted for…
To encourage shoppers to buy more back-to-school items, retailers often implement “loss leader” strategies: that is, selling items at a loss or even giving them away in hopes that the reductions will attract shoppers who will then buy other, more…
