• by Wayne Friedman , David Goetzl  @dgoetzl, August 6, 2009

Late Wednesday, Fox became the first network to announce an end to its upfront deal-making, releasing a vague statement that it has simply "achieved" its goal. The network offered no specifics, but said it opted to hold back "slightly more" inventory than usual for the scatter market.

"While the overall economic climate was difficult during the first six months of 2009, the short-term market for national broadcast time remained strong," Fox sales president Jon Nesvig said in the statement. "With a broader economic recovery seeming to take hold, we are very comfortable in our marketplace positioning for next year."

Rupert Murdoch, CEO of Fox parent News Corp., said earlier Wednesday: "We would rather keep availability for scatter than to lower our rates ... we're not frightened at the year ahead at all."

Murdoch spoke on a call to discuss results for the April-June quarter where Fox struggled in line with industry trends. Revenues for News Corp.'s segment that includes the network fell 24% in the April-June quarter to $1.1 billion. The segment, however, also includes the struggling local stations.

Executives with NBC and ABC have also indicated they would sell a lower-than-usual amount of inventory this summer, and bet demand will increase later. CBS is likely to indicate the same scatter-heavy approach in a conference call Thursday.

Networks this year may only sell around 70% of expected inventory, perhaps 10% less than normal.

Analysts estimate that networks have been forced to offer price discounts anywhere in the 2% to 7% range. With higher ratings, Fox may have been able to stay on the low end.

Analysts further estimate that overall revenues for each network could be down anywhere from 10% to 20%. Murdoch declined to offer any details for Fox.