• by Wayne Friedman , June 16, 2005

Slow-moving cable upfront's advertising deals at the broad-base entertainment networks are nearly half completed, according to media executives.

Cable upfront revenue is trending to be flat to slightly up in overall advertising sales dollars--from $6.2 billion to $6.4 billion. This would be far below projections that estimated cable would pull in as much as $7.2 billion at the end of the upfront process. Last year, cable networks' upfront collectively pulled in $6.2 billion.

"It's moving slowly--but it's moving," said Tim Spengler, executive vp of national broadcast for Initiative Media.

"It's definitely slower than everyone thought," said one veteran cable advertising sales chief. "I thought I'd be done by now."

Turner Broadcasting has completed about 60 percent of its upfront sales, according to media executives. Turner is getting up to 4 percent price increases--far less than the 8 percent it initially wanted.

Lifetime is also at 60 percent. USA Network is 70 percent completed--in part because of two-year deals it made with advertisers last year. MTV Networks is just over halfway to completion in its upfront deals. A&E Network has finished just under 50 percent.

Media executives anticipate that many major networks will conclude their upfront selling by next week.

Most of these broad-base entertainment networks are getting flat to 4 percent cost-per-thousand viewers (CPM) increases. But media buyers are pushing some networks to roll back pricing--which includes Discovery Networks' TLC channel. Procter & Gamble, TV's biggest advertiser, made headlines by telling all TV sellers it would be making major media cuts. This includes up to 20 percent reductions with cable networks. But now it appears that some selected cable networks have gone unscathed--including Lifetime, according to media executives.

Business is moving somewhat more slowly in syndication. One major problem for syndication advertising sellers is that their business is much more dependent on pharmaceutical and packaged goods money than cable or broadcast networks.

Daytime programming is a big daypart for syndication, and is bought by many pharmaceutical brands. But recently, a drug advertising chill has been in the air due to threats of governmental re-regulation of direct-to-consumer drugs. Packaged goods companies, such as P&G, are anticipated to be making major cuts on daytime syndication talk shows.