• The Hollywood Reporter, Tuesday, July 28, 2009 11:18 PM

At least two broadcasters -- Fox and the CW - are poised to complete their upfront selling by the end of this week. The CW is doing deals for its prime-time inventory at an average of -2% to -3%, while Fox is averaging prime-time CPMs at -1%, according to sources.

NBC is also said to be quite far along, but unlike Fox and the CW, is negotiating many of its deals for NBC inventory in conjunction with its cable networks, which slows the process. NBC, which did its first deal more than a month ago, is averaging prime-time CPM deals at 7% less than last year.

CBS is also doing deals at low negative percentages, say sources, despite vowing earlier that the network would not sell at lower rates than last year. ABC, however, still seems to be taking a hard line and refusing to sell its prime-time inventory at negative cost-per-thousand increases compared to last season. In the meantime, syndication budgets from media agencies are rolling in. The higher-rated off-network sitcoms, and traditionally popular daytime programming are landing large chunks of those budgets.

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