• Mediaweek, Tuesday, June 20, 2006 11:30 AM

A slower-paced and more secretly negotiated broadcast television upfront is expected to wrap up this week, reports Mediaweek--and "neither side is willing, or maybe even able, to project the final prime-time dollar tally." Media buyers think it will be lower than last year's roughly $9 billion as they hold back money for digital and other new programming opportunities. But as of the end of last week, buyers and sellers estimated that about $5 billion in prime time had been bought. Still a question: Will NBC include four hours of "Sunday Night Football" or follow ABC's standard operating procedure of keeping sports dollars apart? "Sources familiar with NBC's sales project the network will write the same total it pulled in last year: $1.9 billion," Mediaweek says. The same unnamed folks believe NBC upped its upfront inventory to make up for the price cuts it had to offer in order to reach the same dollar total as last year. Also a question: How does revenue from digital sales figure in? "If we do business with CBS, for example--that not only includes commercial time but also ads on streaming video on their Web site--is that digital money included in prime-time TV commercial sales?" a buyer asks. "And can that total be fairly compared to last year, when less digital opportunities were offered?"

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