• by Wayne Friedman , June 1, 2010

The TV upfront advertising market is moving fast and furious, with Fox -- the leading broadcast network -- nearly completing a big chunk of its upfront negotiations, according to a number of executives, well ahead of other networks.

One media agency executive believes Fox grabbed 8% to 9% cost per thousand (CPM) price increases, which would put Fox well over a $30 average CPM for the price for advertisers to buy key 18-49 viewers on the network. Fox executives didn't comment.

Last week, big media agency Zenith Media was rumored to have registered upfront budgets with most of the networks, much to the chagrin of competing media agency executives, who claimed the move might force the market to move too quickly. Zenith executives would not comment about any upfront activity.

As in years past, movies and automotive media budgets were the first to move the market. Movie studios can stir the market in grabbing high premiums for key must-have inventory, especially on Fox, which has many young-skewing shows that studios seek.

ABC, CBS and NBC are well behind Fox in doing upfront deals, according to media buyers.

"Fox is the industry leader; they wanted to go out first," says one veteran media agency executive. In regard to the other networks, "I'm sure they'll want even bigger increases -- around 12%."

CBS executives have publicly said they expect to ink upfront deals at double-digit percentage price increases. Media executives expect networks to aim for that range to make up for other lost ground -- including audience erosion at around 5%, as well as price declines of a year ago at around 2% to 7%.

This is setting out to be one of the quickest upfronts in recent memory. Last year, most of the market moved in late July. Executives expect much of their upfront business to be completed by the end of the week.

Estimates are that this year's upfront market is expected to rise 20% in revenues over year-ago levels to around $8 billion for prime-time broadcast network programming; as well as a 15% hike for all cable networks' programming, getting to around $7.5 billion.