• by Wayne Friedman , August 1, 2013

After a protracted upfront negotiation period, ABC is now finished with its upfront selling process -- grabbing similar price increases to those of NBC.

ABC gained 7% to 8% price gains on the cost per thousand viewers [CPMs], according to media executives close to the company. Earlier this week, reports said NBC had similar price gains.  

ABC's total volume gains were a bit lower than last year’s results, all of which could benefit the network going forward in the scatter market -- if price increases continue to modestly rise throughout the year. A year ago, ABC pulled in around $2.4 billion. An ABC spokesperson had no comment about the upfront selling process.

Reports said NBC pulled in some $300 million more in volume this upfront period -- up to $2.1 billion, from $1.7 billion. But NBC's selling process was different from other big media companies. Early on, NBC positioned itself as attempting to sell not only its broadcast networks, but its full roster of cable networks, including USA Network, Bravo, E! and others in big network-cable package deals.

Other broadcast networks' deal-making was completed in mid-June -- with two networks closing the levels that each pulled in the previous upfront selling period in 2012 -- with CBS getting $2.6 billion and CW at around $400 million. Fox has been said to have dropped 10% from the year before, to around $1.8 billion. Major cable network groups also finished their upfront deal-making in late June/early July.

Estimates were that overall, broadcast upfront volume would fall 3% to 4% from the $9.2 billion level a year ago. Cable networks are rising by the same amount from the $9.7 billion level in 2012.

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