Commentary

Truth, Justice And The Upfront Way: Let Us Know What You Think

Some readers took exception to Tuesday's column questioning a trade report that this year's upfront negotiations are truly more secretive than normal. We always thought they were handled pretty secretively, but what do we know? Since the actual process apparently has been a secret to us, we thought we'd ask you, our readers (both buyers and sellers), to share your opinions about this year's upfront, as well as some broader questions concerning the upfront in general.

Please click here to participate in a brief online survey conducted via InsightExpress. Your identity, and your individual responses to the survey will be kept confidential. Results of the survey will be published here soon.

And if you feel like engaging in a public dialogue about the character of this year's upfront, the role of the trade press and buyer/seller spin, you can do so by posting comments directly to the TV Watch blog by entering them in the "post reply" box below.

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Separately, we kicked off a little contest in yesterday's column to see just how smart our reader's are in handicapping this year's prime-time network upfront. You can still enter that by replying to this email with your best guess for the following:

* Total network prime-time sales for the six broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, CW and MyNetworkTV) in billions of dollars to two decimal points.

* The individual prime-time sales totals for ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, CW and MyNetworkTV.

The tiebreaker: Predict the CPM percentage change from last year's prime-time upfront for ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox.

The winner must match MediaPost's compilation of a consensus from leading trade publications, newspaper coverage and securities firms.

In the event of a tie, MediaPost will pick one winner from a random drawing.

The winner will receive a free Slingbox to watch their TV on the go, even as the upfront is going, going, gone.

As a point of reference, here's how the networks performed during the 2005-06 prime-time upfront:


ABC: $2.08 billion
CBS: $2.60 billion
NBC: $1.90 billion
Fox: $1.60 billion
UPN: $0.24 billion
WB: $0.68 billion
Six-networks (including UPN and WB): $9.09 billion.

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