• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, October 3, 2007

Plenty of network TV program make-goods are out there this fourth quarter: How about getting payback on the Internet?

Before you go all "Heroes" on me -- make that Syler  -- consider that the coming aggregation of TV viewers across all TV platforms, digital, traditional and otherwise, has been bandied about by a few network executives who suggest lots of TV viewing should be "cumed" under one roof, by program, by whatever.

In the past there have been some problems with media buying shifting of GRPs. Different TV platforms have different CPM price points and, of course, within each platform. 

In a syndication buy, for example, a sitcom like "Seinfeld" may have different price points per daypart -- a run in daytime, prime access, late fringe, or in a prime-time cable run. Yet marketers have no problem making those kinds of buys or getting "audience deficiency units" across those different media areas.

It sounds complicated. But what happens when, say, a network runs out of make-good inventory during the important fourth quarter period, where many consumer marketers want to be?

Should networks do what they did in the past -- in rare instances -- giving back cash? Big-time media companies don't want to give back anything. But they could give inventory in those newfangled video platforms, where, at the moment, those CPMs are many times that of traditional TV. That could be a deal  -- for some.

There are plenty of other issues with the Internet. Traditional TV marketers say a plethora of measurement and back-office verification issues exist that need to be addressed before they spring into action.

The bottom line is that TV pricing during the upfront market and the current fourth quarter scatter market continues to climb -- all in the face of declining TV ratings.  These are the same conditions that existed in most of the late '80s and '90s. But they occurred without new and viable digital platforms, the Internet, VOD, mobile, etc -- though some would say cable TV and syndication were the alternative TV platforms in those years.

So, when the bubble finally bursts -- and it will, just like with real estate prices -- TV marketers will look not just for alternative currencies, but alternative ways of making sure they get those viewers/users they contracted for.

Those make-goods will finally get what they need: a makeover.