The six big broadcast television networks are wrapping up efforts to sell commercial time ahead of the 2005-6 season as NBC, the last of the holdouts, began making deals at lower rates for the first time in four years.

ABC is looking for some of the highest price increases in all of prime-time television for "Monday Night Football," in the 7 percent to 8 percent range on a cost-per-thousand-viewer basis, bringing the average cost of a 30-second "MNF" unit to about $350,000.

Broadcast television networks and stations are destined to become glorified program suppliers whose participation in interactive advertising and content will be dependent on cable, satellite, Internet and other gatekeepers.

Long-time listeners to WCBS-FM are still steaming about Infinity Broadcasting's decision to dump the oldies format for a new concept called "Jack."

CNN has replaced Bill Hemmer with Miles O'Brien as anchor of its morning show, reconfigured its afternoon schedule and hired two new executives to run Anderson Cooper's and Paula Zahn's shows. O'Brien, the network's veteran space correspondent, will team with Soledad O'Brien on "American Morning," which airs 7 to 10 a.m. EDT.

In the tradition-strangled world of commercial radio, all eyes are on that rarest of breeds: a bold new idea. From Seattle and San Diego to Baltimore and Buffalo, more than a dozen big-city radio stations have converted to a format known as Jack-FM over the past two months. On Friday, even legendary New York City oldies station WCBS-FM dumped '60s rock and joined the 'Jack' parade.

Individual executives have long lent their advertising talents to advocate their favorite causes or promote their preferred candidates-on their own time. Agencies as a whole, however, have generally shied away from working on advocacy or political accounts, in large measure because of the risk of alienating big clients who might hold different views.

After attempting to hold the line for the past two weeks, General Electric Co.-owned broadcast network NBC has cut its upfront rates, according to executives involved in the proceedings.

In what is being portrayed by media buyers as a major miscalculation in the upfront marketplace, NBC appears to have hampered its ability to bring in more prime-time upfront ad dollars for the 2005-06 season by initially taking a hardline against dropping its cost-per-thousand viewer ad rates, but finally relenting after no agency was willing to pay the network's CPM increases.

AH, the great names of theater: Shubert, O'Neill, Gershwin, Lunt and Fontanne, Sondheim, Nederlander, Snapple ... Snapple? Yes, another marketer is jumping on the branded-entertainment bandwagon that has been careering along Broadway. The Snapple line of juices, teas and other beverages sold by a division of Cadbury Schweppes is becoming a sponsor of two theaters that are set to open by the end of the month on Broadway south of 50th Street.