• Broadcasting & Cable, Monday, February 18, 2008 12 PM

Some big advertiser and ad-agency associations are pulling together to push ABC, CBS and NBC into reconsidering the $125 million per year in fees the nets charge each year just for buying time in their TV shows.

According to documents obtained by trade magazine Broadcasting & Cable, the American Association of Advertising Agencies, along with the Association of National Advertisers will call for a new look at the fees -- but let the nets defend the current structure, if they can.

"In today's environment, marketers are demanding accountability from their media investments and transparency in their relationships with media partners," the documents say. "Every dollar invested has to prove its worth. Given all this, it's only natural that marketers are again questioning the network-integration fees charged by ABC, CBS and NBC." Many advertisers say the fees are obsolete, the product of a time when someone actually had to physically insert ads into commercial breaks.

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