• by Wayne Friedman , June 10, 2010

Moving quickly in securing upfront business on non-NBC network TV platforms, NBC Universal says it has completed deals for its cable entertainment and cable news channels -- and is nearing completion of deals for syndication, Spanish-language, digital TV platforms. All of which will total some $1.5 billion.

Media executives close to the company say this was part of an overall NBC Universal $4 billion upfront haul. That sum includes what the NBC network booked for all its TV platforms, a bit more than a year ago.

For the upfront 2009, according to reports, NBC took in just under $4 billion for all its properties -- this in the midst of a difficult recession that also hit the TV advertising market. A positive sign for NBC was in analyzing its comparative numbers; 2009 included one big special event, the Vancouver Winter Olympics. Overall revenue for all dayparts for the Vancouver Olympics amounted to $1 billion.

NBC would not confirm any specific numbers. But a statement from Michael Pilot, president of advertising sales and marketing at NBC Universal, said: "This is a great upfront for the entire industry and our results reflect that. We saw market-leading growth for our market-leading properties. Prime-time results were at or above average growth."

All of NBC's network dayparts -- prime-time, daytime, sports, late-night, and early morning -- reached some $2.5 billion.

Estimates are that NBC grabbed around $1.5 billion for just its network prime-time efforts -- anywhere from 15% to 20% more than a year ago -- with about $200 million to $225 million coming from its four hours of "NFL Sunday Night" programming. It grabbed an average 7% increase in the CPMs for the key 18-49 viewers, while selling more inventory this year than last -- around 75% to 80%.

While results are strong for NBC in 2010, ad results appear to be back to the levels -- more or less -- of three years ago.

In June 2007 -- just after that upfront market had been completed -- Jeff Zucker, president and CEO of NBC Universal, said during an investor conference: "As a company, we will write about $4 billion in business this upfront." One change that occurred after the upfront sales period: NBC bought the Oxygen network in October of that year for just under $1 billion.

Separately, Turner Broadcasting's TNT and TBS could wrap business as early as Monday. CPM increases are believed to be in a similar plus 9% to 10% range as some broadcast deals.

TBS sales include Conan O'Brien's new late-night show, which the network may be using as leverage to prop up other lower-tier offerings. --with David Goetzl