• Mediaweek, Monday, March 19, 2007 11 AM

Robust scatter ad sales in the first half, particularly at Fox but strong across the board, have broadcast sales execs confident they will be in good shape in this year's upfront marketplace. That's a shift from the last few years, when media agencies pretty much called the tune on pricing.

"We're not going to be pushed around like we were last year," says one broadcast executive. "Scatter prices are up double digits at most networks over upfront pricing, so any advertisers that sat out the upfront last year or that held back significant dollars will have to think long and hard about doing that again."

Moving the scatter market are various product launches, along with hefty demand in categories, including wireless, retail, pharmaceuticals, financial services and packaged-goods. As Leslie Moonves, president and CEO of CBS Corp., said at a recent Bear Stearns conference: "For those advertisers that held back, scatter prices are up by about 10% [over upfront]. So when Johnson & Johnson said, 'We're going to wait out the upfront and come in August,' it ended up not being such a good thing."

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