• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, April 3, 2008

NBC Entertainment co-chairman Ben Silverman had something for every TV marketer during his upfront presentation to journalists on Wednesday.

Silverman -- as well as Co-Chairman Marc Graboff -- made a pledge to give advertisers more or less what they bought. For instance, NBC promises no radical changes of content in specific time periods.

But Silverman also gave something of a bonus to advertisers -- a return of the family hour, something a growing batch of advertisers have wanted for a long time.

Still, it's yet to be determined if a still struggling, hard-core drinking and scheming low-life, Earl, in "My Name is Earl"  at 8 p.m. on Thursday, constitutes family programming. There's another question about whether "Deal or No Deal" -- a game show about greed -- is necessarily a typical family show. But at least it's a start.

Also for advertisers, Silverman says NBC will section every prime-time night into three easy-to-digest programming areas: 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. is what he calls the "family hour,"  9 p.m. to 10 p.m. is "blockbuster hour," and 10 p.m. to 11 p.m. is the less catchy "adult themes hour."

Now, it'll be an easy paint-by-numbers effort for media agency executives to determine where to put their marketers' dollars -- although it's safe to assume NBC's marketing efforts won't necessarily promote these hour monikers to TV consumers.

There'll be fewer reruns on NBC -- also a plus for marketers.

NBC did its upfront early to let marketers get in on the ground floor, so to speak. Now, they'll be meeting with all major media agencies in the next three days.

But, interestingly, NBC gave journalists the first crack -- the first day -- at what the programming will be.  NBC obviously trusts TV business writers to get the word out properly.

We'll wait and see whether marketers give the right words of encouragement -- in the form of upfront dollars -- to NBC in the coming weeks.