As clients evaluate their budgets, a noted Wall Street analyst predicts total dollars for the Big Four networks in the upfront market will drop 15% this spring -- indicative of a buyers' market. The sharp decline would decrease the total haul for ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC to approximately $7.4 billion.
[...], DiClemente cast doubt on how successful networks will be at eking out upfront CPM increases, even with lower sellout rates. He predicts CPM drops across the board: CBS and Fox down 1%, ABC dropping 3, and NBC down 5%.
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This is far less optimistic than even the already pessimistic predictions here. It’ll be interesting to see if it’s worse than even DiClemente suggests.
BUT WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR CHUCK!?!
Sorry, couldn’t resist. This is bad news for everyone, actually. If anyone had any doubts that reality tv was about to eat up a whole lot of airtime, lay them to rest, because we’re going to start seeing many fewer pilots. Wonder if this will spur the broadcast nets to switch to the cable model?