• Reuters via Yahoo, Thursday, May 10, 2007 11:02 AM

The annual upfront negotiations have always been a complex business, but never before are they apt to be so tricky as this time around, writes Paul Thomasch. For as buyers and sellers head into next week's presentations and start to book some $9 billion in prime-time advertising, there are huge questions over how to set prices tied to the spread of digital video recorders, the broadcast of some shows online and changing measurement standards.

"I don't know that it can be any more complicated," says Lisa Herdman, vice president and associate director of network programming at agency RPA. About the same amount of money is expected to flow this year, although some network executives forecast more. But both sides see deals looking different and think the delicate dance could slow due to uncertainty over how deals will be structured. "I think the biggest shortcoming on the upfront is there's still a fair amount of confusion, disagreement among the agencies about what the pricing standard is going to be," says Peter Chernin, chief operating officer at News Corp.

Read the whole story at Reuters via Yahoo »