Upfront Upswing: CBS Grabs $2.5B, ABC Inks $2.3B, NBC Lands $1.7B; Cable Expected To Hit $9B

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CBS, ABC, and NBC have completed their respective upfront advertising sales for the 2011-2012 season with strong results -- while a number of established cable networks are about halfway through their negotiations.

CBS landed about 6% more money -- some $150 million more than a year ago -- reaching $2.55 billion, the most of any broadcast network. Some executives say CBS inked deals at 13% to 15% increases on the cost per thousand viewers. The network initially was asking for 18% gains.

ABC is also done, inking around 7% more money versus a year ago, to $2.35 billion. Some estimates now say ABC took in 11% increases on the CPMs. Early projections had ABC getting deals for advertising averaging 10% price gains.

NBC also pulled in around 6% more upfront dollars to $1.7 billion, at around 9% price hikes. Similar price gains were also seen for NBC News programming and networks, including MSNBC and CNBC. NBC also had strong pricing for its late-night, early morning, and daytime dayparts.

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Some networks may be inching ahead of others because of differences in the CPM prices. Fox is at the top, averaging around $41 to $42 for the cost per thousand viewers in the 18-49 demo. ABC and CBS are a bit behind, anywhere between $38 and $39 dollars. NBC is slightly below these numbers.

"ABC has concluded its upfront negotiations, achieving significant increases in pricing. This positive response helped drive great volume across the board, and across all day-parts, and reinforced the confidence that national advertisers have in the power of ABC," the network stated.

Neither CBS or NBC executives would comment about upfront activities.

Cable networks are moving with upfront deals, now with the top seven networks selling around 55% of their upfront commercial inventory. As of midday Thursday, Turner Broadcasting, FX, Discovery, A&E Networks, and USA Networks have done deals.

MTV Networks completed its upfront process a week ago, say media executives, going after share of dollars and not necessarily high price increases. MTV had the good fortune of growing its pool of ratings points last season, which can be a double-edged sword where it needs a bigger volume of ad dollars to fill increased rating supply.

Media executives say both USA Network and Turner initially asked for sizable price hikes -- USA Network around 13%, and Turner, anywhere from 13% to 15% increases. The expectation is that many cable deals at these network might be done in the 9.5% to 11% range for the top 10 networks. Looking at the entire range of cable networks, price hikes could vary from 7% to 11%.

Overall, broadcast networks' prime-time inventory look to gain around 3% to 5% in overall volume to some $8.5 billion, according to one industry TV network estimate. U.S. syndication now looks to move up about the same percentage -- to $2.2 billion from the $2.1 billion of a year ago.

Cable networks will add 12%, now at $8.96 billion. According to this estimate, that would mean -- for the first time -- that it will top the upfront dollar totals of the broadcast networks. It should be said that typical cable upfront estimates include all dayparts -- not just prime time. Also, it encompasses 70-some-odd advertising-supported cable networks versus just a handful of broadcast networks.

Dollar volume gains were better during the 2010 upfront selling season, with broadcast networks up 12%, cable, 19.5% higher, and syndication adding on 5% versus the very weak 2009 upfront selling period.

But with somewhat fewer rating points this year versus a year ago -- on broadcast and on some major cable networks -- TV sellers grabbed better price gains this upfront selling season versus the last.

Last year, broadcast and TV networks got mid-single-digit price increases -- 5% to 8%. This year, the numbers are generally higher.

 

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