Television networks still recovering from the writers strike held their upfronts last week, and the news is not so great. The networks are looking for a combined total of nearly $9 billion from marketers, but with recession either looming or already here depending on your mood, nobody seems to be willing to buy. From Ad Age:

“I don’t expect there to be any kind of stampede or hurry,” said John Swift, exec VP at Omnicom Group media-buying firm PHD. “There are more complex issues” advertisers want to consider when crafting TV deals, he said, such as attaching criteria to determine ad effectiveness and performance.

Which seems to be the common theme for beleaguered television networks looking to sell ad space. While television advertising still absolutely dominates the advertising landscape, the growing complaint among advertisers is that television commercials, especially when compared to online ads, simply don’t have the same metrics available. Television networks can offer up how many eyes are on an ad, and some rough demos about those eyes, but beyond that it’s largely guesswork.

The advertising ecosystem is scrambling to fill that hole. Nielsen is attempting to do so with its just completed acquisition of IAG Research, which helps marketers determine consumer engagement with advertising.

ABC rolled out its own plan, the Advertising Value Index, which measured an ad’s effectiveness using undisclosed metrics to help marketers determine exactly when and where their ad spend would best used. ABC was even kind enough to crunch the numbers, and they were shocked, shocked to find out that ABC was the best performing network according to ABC’s metrics.

The bottom line is not that television ad spending is about to crash and burn (though it may actually decrease a percentage point or two). It’s that whatever company or network can unlock the secret to helping marketers get the more finely-tuned targeting for television advertising that online ad networks now offer as a matter of course will hold a distinct advantage in getting wary marketers to lay down the cash for a television ad buy.

(Photo by Flickr user A Touch of Glass, CC 2.0)