• by Wayne Friedman , June 4, 2010

The CW copied what Fox did during the first part of the week -- doing a series of fast-and-furious season-long deals that close its upfront negotiations. Now other networks are finally moving.

 

ABC, CBS and NBC held off after Fox, hoping for improved pricing. The entire broadcast upfront market is expected to bring in $8 billion this year, about 20% more than a year ago. Fox has been rumored to have grabbed just under $2.0 billion.

After waiting a few days, media agency executives say ABC and CBS starting doing deals late Thursday night, inking the bulk of their business into Friday at an average 8% to 8.5% cost-per-thousand viewer (CPM) increases, a bit below that of Fox. All that leaves NBC, which seems to be sticking on the sidelines, looking to wait until next week to do the most of its upfront deals.

"Seems things to have slowed a bit, but the overall market is strong. Now it's just positioning," says Gary Carr, senior vice president and executive director of national broadcast for New York-based media buyer TargetCast TCM.

CW, a niche-targeted mini-broadcast network, isn't waiting. Media executives said the network grabbed average 7.5% CPM increases for its key women 18-34 viewers, increasing volume 20% over a year ago to around $350 million.

More importantly, CW was successful with its ambitious plan of marrying traditional TV deals for "Gossip Girl," "Vampire Diaries" and its new show "Nikita" with airings of those TV shows online.

Rob Tuck, CW's executive vice president of advertising sales, would not give an exact number -- he would only confirm that "most" of its deals involved the cross-platform selling of its traditional TV and Internet commercial inventory. "Advertisers' flights online will mirror their flights on TV," he says. Because of the nature of streaming video online, he says, "they aren't buying spot for spot."

Now the big question: How will CW give advertisers similar audience guarantees based on specific demographics? Tuck says deals have been made with CW in guaranteeing online viewership by using impressions provided by third-party Internet research/advertising company DoubleClick.

This data is married to Nielsen VideoCensus, which can identify the percentage of specific viewer groups, such as women 18-34. This Nielsen percentage data -- long used over the years -- is called VPVHs, the viewing per hundred viewers.

CW completed virtually all deals on Thursday night. Improving budgets came from automotive and retailers, which lifted CW's coffers. Tuck says the network broadened its list of advertising categories, including that of its core retailing category -- an important ad category for its young female viewers.

Some competing network executives were miffed at Fox for setting its pricing increases too low. With Fox as the industry leader, they believe, it could have set its pricing increases higher, so other networks could follow. CBS has been saying it could command double-digit CPM increases against 2009 numbers.

A Fox spokeswoman stated: "Fox has concluded our prime-time upfront sales at volume and pricing levels consistent with our position as the No. 1 network."

Because it lost ratings ground among 18-49 viewers this past year more than other networks, ABC could land a bit under Fox and CBS with price increases. NBC would come up under ABC in the 6% to 7% range.

Cable is next. Turner Broadcasting's big entertainment networks TNT and TBS have started pricing at around 13% increases from a year ago. But media executives don't give those numbers any credence, as that is only the initial offering. Media executives say this has been a customary tactic at Turner over the years.

NBC Universal's cable networks, USA Network, Syfy, Bravo and others, should be in the early hunt when the cable part of the upfront market moves.