While media buyers were dumbfounded by the strength of the broadcast network upfront marketplace the week prior, they were equally astonished last week with the syndication market. Many top-tier first-run and off-network shows were landing price hikes in the 8-9 percent range.
And much like their sales counterparts on the broadcast side, which saw prime-time ad revenue for the Big Four networks grow by 3.5 percent, TV syndication sales executives were making bullish predictions that they could cumulatively see a dollar volume increase of about $100 million, to $2.4 billion–up 4.2 percent over last year
