Initially, much of the deal-making at these levels is for broadcast prime-time and NFL programming inventory. These media sellers are expected to complete much of their respective upfront TV deal-making over the next few days.

Paramount Global is a few days behind this group, while Warner Bros. Discovery is moving more slowly, as it is pushing for more bullish pricing gains.

Representatives at NBCUniversal, Disney Advertising, Fox Corp, and Paramount Global had no comment to inquiries from Television News Daily. Warner Bros. Discovery did not respond by press time.

Upfront pricing gains have been expected to be lower than the sky-high double-digit increases of a year ago. This is largely due to market conditions -- especially near-term weak "scatter" deals in the first and second quarter of this year -- which are just on par with pricing set in the upfront market a year ago.

“A double-digit market is a rarity, especially when you factor in a [possible] recession, inflation and a soft scatter market,” says another veteran media agency executive, adding that it is rare to see a “back to back double digit upfront market.”

The increase in pricing levels this year would be dramatically lower than for last year’s upfront -- when numbers stood at around 19% hikes for CPM prime-time programming on broadcast networks, and 10% for cable networks, according to Media Dynamics.

The total national TV upfront ad market -- broadcast and cable -- was at $19.04 billion for the 2021-2022 TV season -- up from 2.2% from the pandemic-period upfront market in June-August 2020. Volume was down 13% from the 2019 market.

While media agencies and TV network sellers have talked up a number of “tests” involving new audience measurements, virtually all upfront deal-making will continue to use Nielsen audience data as the “currency” for its deals.

At the same time, media buyers continue to expect big pieces of their traditional TV network upfront buys to shift to legacy TV network-owned streaming platforms and/or other independent streaming/digital services -- anywhere from 20% to 30%.

The national TV upfront marketplace is where TV networks sell the bulk of their advertising inventory -- anywhere from 60% to 75% -- to major brand advertisers and other marketers before the TV season starts in September, and runs through August.