• by Wayne Friedman , June 3, 2011

CBS is starting to make some upfront prime-time advertising deals at low- to mid-teen price increases -- down off initial 18% pricing hikes, according to media executives.

No word yet as to how much has been sold. CBS started making deals late Thursday night. CBS executives had no comment. CBS raised eyebrows among media executives on Tuesday night with initial 18% price hikes on the CPMs in prime time.

More than prime time, media agency executives have been moaning about the high increase in pricing of non-prime time dayparts. CBS started off asking for pricey 12% to 14% or more in CPM increases for early morning, early evening news and late-night programming. So far, CBS has not begun to sell this inventory.

While CBS has been competitive with Fox in prime time, say executives, it is farther behind when considering key non-prime time blocks, warranting less of those price increases.

"Look at early morning and evening news: They are [last] in third place," complains one veteran media buying executive. "What's the word? Hubris." Another media executive was also surprised: "Yes, I'm dumbfounded as well. I'll move money if they don't come off their crazy ask."

Early this week, CBS' initial asked price gains of 18% for prime-time programming were received with much skepticism -- that the TV advertising market didn't warrant these proposed increases, according to executives. By comparison, both Fox and ABC scored much lower price hikes -- 10% to 11%.

All this gave way to a big day-and-a-half pause for media executives in their broadcast network negotiations. Still, estimates are that CBS is slowly moving with upfront deals and could drag into the second week in June.

Separately, Fox has announced completing its network upfront deals with media executives saying Fox got 10% or 11% gains, for around $1.98 billion in overall prime-time upfront dollar volume -- up from around $1.85 billion last year. Estimates are that Fox sold around 80% of its inventory, about average compared to other recent years.

ABC, according to executives, may be 50% to 75% completed, now grabbing 10% or more price hikes. CW has done deals, and NBC, cable networks, and big syndication sales groups will be next to go.