Cable Upfront Moving Slowly

The slow-moving cable upfront has at least one major hurdle to clear before it kicks into high gear: ABC. Until the broadcast market wraps--and ABC is the principal reason for the hold-up--sources said that cable is mostly engaged in a waiting game.

That's not to say top-tier cable entities aren't making deals--MTV Networks, Turner, Discovery, and FX all have--but the going is slow. Some highly-rated networks are said to have completed 20 percent of their business, although a deal with only one major agency can account for the bulk of that. Middle- and lower-tier cable networks are said to be barely out of the starting gate.

Driving much of the early cable sales is the auto category--which represents a significant portion of business for leading cable networks, save those in the MTV family.

Both buyers and sellers have tossed about July 4 as a target to complete the deal-making, but many acknowledge that may be optimistic. Some say broadcast may not wrap until the holiday weekend, although that apparently depends on ABC, which is said to still be only half finished. CBS and Fox are believed to be close to completion, with NBC having done the majority of deals, but still with a ways to go.

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Nonetheless, until broadcast closes, agencies may have difficulty turning their full attention to cable.

The ebbing cable market mirrors broadcast, with a slower pace than previous years. In response, Merrill Lynch analyst Jessica Reif Cohen revised projections for the cable upfront downward this week from a 5 percent volume gain to 3 percent ($7.31 billion). The market grew 8 percent last year, according to Cohen.

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