• USA Today, Tuesday, March 27, 2007 11 AM

Ad buyers and sellers should get ready for late nights and long negotiations in this year's broadcast upfront. It will be a much more complex bazaar this time around, as both sides attempt to use a lot of new data points to measure viewership and thus determine pricing.

"I've never seen an upfront like this," says Alan Wurtzel, NBC Universal's president of research. "There are many different metrics being bandied about." While ad time has long been based on live audience measurement of a show from Nielsen, the research firm is now offering a tally just of ad viewing -- and that should be a big factor.

Mike Shaw, ABC's sales and marketing president, says he plans to use both, along with ratings of delayed viewing on digital video recorders: "We'll do all sorts of deals."

Read the whole story at USA Today »