• by Wayne Friedman , David Goetzl  @dgoetzl, June 2, 2008

Although the upfront market is off to the races, with ABC and a couple of media agencies striking deals, media executives anticipate a moderately paced market that will continue at least into the first week of June.

Executives say ABC struck two separate deals--one with Starcom USA and another with Zenith Media. NBC was also said to be negotiating with OMD--an agency that has multiple prominent Super Bowl advertisers. (NBC has the big game next year.)

A number of other media agencies were also looking to get the jump on the marketplace. Some major cable networks were also in the hunt as of late Friday. Still, many were unsure whether they would reach agreements as the evening progressed.

ABC was looking for at least double-digit increases on the cost-per-thousand viewers (CPMs) to make up for the double-digit ratings losses this season, which have also hurt other broadcast networks. Instead, ABC may have inked deals at 7% increases.

Media executives were expecting that top-rated Fox might nab the highest CPM increases in the 9% range, followed by ABC with slightly lower gains. CBS would come next, with NBC inking 6%.

One unknown factor in the ABC deal is whether Starcom reached agreements that included guarantees based on more granular or "precision" metrics than the C3 standard.

Starcom has been vocal about negotiating upfront deals--with broadcasters, cable networks and syndicators--based on exact-minute rating guarantees and/or engagement metrics. Mike Shaw, president of advertising sales for ABC, has said he is open to trying all sorts of deals.

In regard to these upfront deals, ABC, Starcom and Zenith representatives had no comment. The ABC deals with Starcom and Zenith were first reported by Mediaweek.