Posted on 07/05/2006 5:52:36 AM PDT by george76
Advance sales for the season that begins in September are wrapping up below last year's tally...
Television advertising executives are biting their nails this year as advance ad sales fall short of last year's tally...
The frenzied "upfront" period, which typically accounts for about 75 percent of total prime-time ad sales...
That's down about 3.4 percent from last year...
"Buyers are in control," John Moore, group media director of MediaHub...
"The competitive landscape is much, much different" from previous years.
Networks even tried to sweeten deals this year by offering tie-ins with their online arms or product placements in the TV shows themselves.
"They want to show good numbers to Wall Street. They have a revenue picture they want to meet. That makes things difficult."
(Excerpt) Read more at money.cnn.com ...
If they REALLY want to show good numbers to Wall Street, they might try getting rid of their bias, report things as they really are, get rid of their filth, and stop trying to pound their views into our heads. Notjust listen to the "little people", (like Katie Couric is trying to do).
NBC cuts ad rates
GE-owned network mired in 4th place...
NBC cut its advertising rates for this season by as much as 5%, reflecting the fourth-ranked network's decline in ratings, according to people familiar with the negotiations.
The network plans to sell more commercial time to make up for the lower prices...
http://www.nydailynews.com/business/story/427289p-360376c.html
The old media is killing themselves.
So far the suits do not seem to care much, but wall street is starting to notice.
Here's a thought - try actually broadcasting unbiased news and quality programming. Scrap the "Reality" crap and go back to the drawing board, learning from such TV classics as "Playhouse 90", "Hawaiian Eye", "The Honeymooners", "Sgt. Bilko", "The Carol Burnett Show", "Gunsmoke", etc., etc.
Perhaps if quality programming returned to TV in place of the current garbage, viewers might be willing to abandon their game systems and DVDs long enough to watch. More viewers means that the networks can justify the current (or even increased) advertising rates.
Just a thought!!
Doesn't that have something to do with the signals they currently send into my house that are going digital so I can't decode them with any equipment I currently have on hand?
Are they planning to send me some money to encourage me to try to intercept these signals in the future?
Ping
It is amazing how much GE wants NBC and all of its bastard cable outlets to stay alive to spew the liberal lies. It is a mystery as much of the liberal spewing coming from NBC condemns a lot of GE sells in this country and around the world.
Ad client: "What've you got for me?"
TV rep: "An Idol ripoff, a Big Brother/Survivor/Fear Factor ripoff, a newsmagazine, and two sitcoms starring mediocre standup comics, improbably hot wives in tight sweaters and 'hilarious' smartass kids that would get a smack in the face in real life."
Ad client: "Er, thanks but no thanks."
Syndication Plays Catch-Up, Follows Nets' Weak Upfront Lead
http://publications.mediapost.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=45196&art_type=10
by David Goetzl, Wednesday, Jul 5, 2006 8:15 AM ET
IF BROADCASTERS FACED AN UPHILL battle in the upfront, leading syndicators look to be in for an even steeper climb to improve on last year's approximate $2.89 billion upfront advertising take.
With aging off-net hits and declining ratings, syndicators are already doing deals with significant price cuts. There appears to be no rush to snap up the considerable inventory; syndicators appear eager to agree to the price cuts in exchange for more volume. Two media buying executives report that deals for some high-profile sitcoms are being inked at pricing under that of a year ago.
The weakness of the syndication market follows that of the network market. Early reports from the likes of Merrill Lynch projected syndication volume to grow 4 percent to just over $3 billion. Now, one veteran syndication media sales executive anticipates overall syndication volume to drop just as it seemingly has with the broadcast networks. "We'll follow the networks," he said.
Still other syndication executives report that other syndication shows are getting price increases, including shows such as Buena Vista's "Live with Regis & Kelly," Twentieth's "That 70s Show," King World Productions' "Oprah Winfrey," and Warner Bros.' "Ellen." Executives also report Sony Pictures Television to be getting higher pricing for some of its shows versus a year ago.
"Syndication has a few 'haves,' but mostly 'have-nots,'" said Tim Spengler, executive vice president/director of national broadcast for Initiative Media.
"That 70s Show" is one of the "haves," coming off a year where it saw ratings jump 30 percent among adults 18 to 49, and 17 percent among women ages 18 to 49. "Regis" and "Oprah" will make pricing gains--although both have seen ratings dip in some demos, such as women 18 to 49.
In addition to some ratings stumbles, buyers said top-tier syndicated shows have risen to disproportionately high pricing levels that the market can no longer support, leading to the CPM declines. Even with the rollbacks, "Seinfeld" and "Friends" still command premium pricing. This past season, "Seinfeld" dropped 9 percent in women 18 to 49, while "Friends" has dropped 7 percent.
Cable also appears to be stumbling along, as top-tier networks were expected to make deals with CPM rollbacks. Executives said networks were willing to make deals at flat CPMs, with buyers pressing for decreases in pricing.
Both syndication and cable face the challenge of trying to negotiate with the sluggish broadcast upfront as a backdrop. One media buyer says the overall broadcast network upfront business could have dropped anywhere from $300 million to $600 million this season--taking the total broadcast upfront business down to $8.2 billion from the $8.7 total of a year ago.
Meanwhile, ABC closed its upfront Friday--selling what was expected to be less inventory versus a year ago, said a media agency executive. Initially, ABC was expected to lead the pack in CPM increases. Early ABC deals were struck in the 3 to 4 percent increase range. But then the market got softer, and ABC struck later deals in the 2 percent range. As a goodwill gesture, ABC reworked those early deals with agencies to come in at about 2 percent. This is a typical process that networks sometimes go through in order to be fair to all marketers and to avoid discouraging early movers in the future.
Said one media buyer: "It's in its interest to take care of its agency partners."
With their revenue dropping and their expenses rising, their profit margins will be much tighter.
Maybe wall street will notice.
Then the stupid mutual funds with losers will lose some more.
An anonymous person apparently ignorant of MSM's proclivity towards using the euphemism inventory in place of commercial time as a ploy to keep auds blissfully unaware of less program content.
Fox Leads in a Tepid 'Upfront' Push
. . .
NBC, which has lagged behind other networks in ratings in the past couple of years, has completed about 40% of its upfront sales, according to a person familiar with the situation. Buyers have been interested in working with NBC because of its willingness to accept lower prices. The network expects to secure between $1.8 billion and $1.9 billion in total ad commitments in the upfront, compared with about $1.9 billion last year, making up for lower prices by selling more inventory.
More great news.
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