Upfront Update: CBS Says Scatter Is Up, Compared to 2008

It looks as though another week has gone by in which there will be no movement in the upfront TV ad sales market — I just scanned the Web sites of the most likely suspects among the media trades to see if they’d reported anything, and all I came up with was this: some quotes from the CFO of our ultimate corporate overlord, CBS, that the scatter market is up by single digits compared to last year, and, naturally, that CBS will do well in the upfront market this year.

While CFO Fred Reynolds’ musings about the ad market may indeed be true (he said them at the Merrill Lynch Global Telecommunications, Media, Technology Conference in London yesterday), his statements could also be viewed as part of CBS’ upfront strategy. Plant the seed with buyers about a relatively strong market for scatter inventory — which is the approximately 25 percent of inventory networks hold back to sell closer to actual air dates — and they may begin to wonder if they should be a little more compromising when it comes to the upfront. Of course, Reynolds agreed with CBS CEO Les Moonves that CBS will be up in this year’s market, based on its stronger viewership this past season, amidst its competitors’ declines. The proof, of course, will be in the pudding, but Reynolds admitted its going to take some time for that pudding to gel. He predicted the market will get going around the 4th of July, or maybe even later, putting some sort of denouement between buyers and sellers at least two weeks further out than some other predictions. Whatever the case, it’s going to be a long wait.

Previously in BNET Media:

• The Network TV Upfront: CBS Is Where the Sun Always Shines
• CBS’ Moonves Not as Upfront About the Upfront
• The Upfront Ad Market Will Start Whenever