Ad Inventory Available in ABC’s Desperate Housewives, Et Al

ABC's strategy of increasing ad prices for advertisers by only mid-single digits during the upfront, apparently in expectation of a pullback by advertisers in broadcast TV spending, has apparently worked out, leaving the network with a strong mix of ad inventory available for the scatter market, reports AdAge. Media buyers had expected higher price hikes from ABC, given the network's hit shows such as Desperate Housewives, but Robert Iger, Walt Disney Co.'s CEO-elect, said the network "read the marketplace very carefully and, I think, in the end accurately."