Networks fall behind in ‘upfront' ad sales

NETWORKS FALL BEHIND IN 'UPFRONT' AS SALES
[SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR: David Lieberman and Laura Petrecca]
Executives at ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC and their new siblings, CW and My Network TV, as a group are uncharacteristically mum and apparently cheerless as the advance ad sales period for the season that begins in September is wrapping up below last year's tally. The consensus among buyers and sellers is that the six networks will end up booking nearly $8.9 billion in the frenzied “upfront” period, which typically accounts for about 75% of total prime-time ad sales. That's down about 3.4% from last year, based on Morgan Stanley's assessment of the 2005-06 market. This year's drop may be even steeper than that number suggests: Last year's figures don't include ABC's sales for Monday Night Football — analysts usually tally sports separately. But numbers circulating this year factor in NBC's Sunday Night Football. “Buyers are in control,” says John Moore, group media director of MediaHub, ad agency Mullen's buying unit. “The competitive landscape is much, much different” from previous years. There's less pressure for advertisers to spend. They don't have to worry as much as they did in previous years about free-spending pharmaceutical or technology companies gobbling up air time to introduce products. In addition, “for some product categories, like travel and automotive, these aren't the best of times,” says Brad Adgate, research director at Horizon Media. “Unfortunately, sometimes if the dollars aren't there, one of the first things they cut is marketing.” Advertisers also find it easier to resist network efforts to stampede them into rich deals as the number of alternative ad venues grows. In addition to new media led by the Internet, the average home got 96 channels in 2005, up 57% from 2000, according to Nielsen Media Research. This year, the popularity of digital video recorders has advertisers seriously questioning the value of network ads. By year's end, nearly 16% of all homes are expected to have DVRs, which give viewers the power to easily fast-forward past the ads.
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/money/20060705/upfront03.art.htm

* Please touch that dial (Remaking Ads for a TiVo World)
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/business/technology/14958459.htm