Search »

Upfront Nearly Complete, Expected to Draw $9.2B

After three weeks of delay between the time the networks made their upfront presentations and the time deals began to be written, the upfront is suddenly almost complete.

CBS, NBC, ABC and Fox are virtually done writing deals and, with just the CW left to go, experts are projecting the prime time upfront could total $9.2 billion, up about 5 percent from last year’s $8.75 million, writes Mediaweek.

MediaPost pegs the number as up 3 percent from last year’s $8.7 million.

Nearly all the deals done by CBS, NBC and ABC were done using average commercial minutes and live-plus-three-day viewing - a combination some in the industry are calling C3.
CBS is expected to take in about $2.45 billion, or more than $100 million more than last year’s prime time total. The network did deals at CPM increases of 8 percent. NBC was essentially flat compared to last year, doing deals at 5 percent to 6 percent CMP increases.

ABC got the highest CPM increases, claiming increases between 8 and 10 percent over last year. It booked $2.4 billion, up 5 percent from its take last year. Fox wrote $1.85 billion in deals, also up 5 percent.