Seventy-four days after the last of the broadcast networks took the wraps off its fall programming lineup, the Sisyphean 2009-10 upfront is finally creeping to a close, with executives on both sides of the table indicating that business could finish up by the beginning of next week.
After seven weeks of trying to roll the pricing boulder up the steep grade of a stronger-than-anticipated television marketplace, media buyers are at last nearing the summit. While buyers began making the ascent in late June, the gravity of clients’ demands for double-digit CPM rollbacks met with push-back from network ad sales executives, and time and again talks were sent crashing back down the slope.
As the Greeks would have it, Sisyphus’ infernal errand was a condemnation handed down by the gods as punishment for his hubris. According to more than a few ad sales bosses, that sort of pridefulness informed much of this upfront, as clients made incongruous pricing demands and buyers tried to force the issue with the networks.
Despite the mounting pressure to accept the double-digit rollbacks on offer, the nets held their ground. At the same time, the sellers began to give up on the single-digit cost-per-thousand increases they’d asked for at the outset. In the end, both sides had to lessen expectations, but having failed to meet client demand, buyers may have lost more face.
“The agencies should be ashamed,” said one ad sales chief, who like nearly all the executives reached for this story, spoke on the condition of anonymity. “They completely backed themselves in the corner when they told their clients they could get them those 10 percent rollbacks. And while they couldn’t get any business written, they did everything they could to turn the upfront into some kind of half-assed silent auction.”
While this year’s upfront has been conducted with unprecedented secrecy, buyers weren’t the only players who tried to stem the flow of information. “Look, we’ve kept quiet too,” said one network exec. “The agencies may have issued a gag order, but once we were able to get a feel for where the market was and how we’d end up, we started dealing with third-party guys on a need-to-know basis.”
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