• Mediaweek, Tuesday, August 31, 2010 12:16 AM

Despite a rash of troubling macroeconomic indicators that suggest the recovery may have lost its forward momentum, media buyers and network executives are confident that the TV advertising marketplace will remain robust through the end of the year writes Mediaweek. After that, it's anyone's guess. Buyers and sellers have begun the process of converting holds to orders, and while there's still some time on the clock, early indications support the notion that there won't be an inordinate amount of breakage. On the broadcast side of the ledger, ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox and The CW are all facing another arduous autumn battle, as cable continues to make raids on prime time and younger viewers get lured away from the tube by the digital pied piper. Last season, only Fox managed to grow its share of adults 18-49, and in the aggregate, cable now enjoys a two-to-one lead in share.

What's slowed is TV pitches, according to Deadline. In early August, the marketplace had only a few pitches in. "We're very late this year," a network topper tells me. Some point to the last selling season which was so long and bruising, by the end of it everyone felt exhausted. "We all took a collective break," one top TV lit agent says. Also, there are a lot of new scripted series -- 38 -- picked up by the broadcast nets for next season, almost 60% more than the 24 new series ordered last year. That, coupled with the increased volume of original series on cable, made fewer writers available to develop this year. A non-writing producer told me he has never gotten so many "not available" answers from TV lit agents when inquiring about writers.

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