• Adweek , Tuesday, November 6, 2007 11:45 AM

Media agencies are getting increasingly annoyed with broadcast nets that are still selling their scatter inventory rather than offering it up as makegoods for the rotten prime-time ratings yielded so far by the new C3 measurement. Some buyers say the networks have now sold so much fourth-quarter ad time that retailers that need their make-goods as the holidays near aren't going to get them. Although many retailers need pod exclusivity, most are already filled with retail ads through the end of the year.

"If an advertiser can't get the gross rating points for their commercials when they need them, what is the point of running the ads at all?" asks one media buyer who prefers to remain anonymous. Even with heavy demand for time in the nearly sold-out fourth-quarter prime time, buyers say there are ratings shortfalls under the new metric that the nets are trying to attribute to a minor research snafu.

Through the first five weeks of the season, live program ratings for the five broadcast networks are down nearly 10%, with total viewership off 8% and the 18-49 demo slumping 12%. And the new commercial ratings pretty much mirror that trend. "The networks did not even start offering makegoods until about two weeks ago, even though we requested them before that for some of our clients," says another buyer. "And now they're trying to hold out giving them until first quarter."

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