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ABC’s Price Tag Soars

Jun 24, 2007  •  Post A Comment

The year’s upfront went much better than last year’s for Mike Shaw, ABC’s president of sales and marketing.
A year ago, Mr. Shaw led the charge to have digital video recorder playback included in advertising deals. He held out, only to see the other networks cave in to buyers who insisted on negotiating based on live viewing.
Buyers said Mr. Shaw’s stand meant ABC secured less upfront business than it otherwise might have. This year, the network scored $2.4 billion in commitments, up from $2.3 billion, Mr. Shaw said.
This year ABC had the biggest price increases among the networks. Mr. Shaw can crow about what the move to commercial ratings, including three days of DVR playback, means to the broadcast networks.
“You had a number of agencies for the first time go back and literally re-order how much they want to buy from which supplier based on a new metric,” Mr. Shaw said. “That metric benefits us because more commercials are seen.”
Combined with data on engagement that indicates viewers pay more attention to commercials on broadcast, “Those two factors had to send the money our way,” he said.
Mr. Shaw said he expects those gains to grow next year as agencies incorporate the new ratings, which buyers and sellers are calling “C3.”
“As more and more people focus on just exactly what the transformation to commercial ratings really means to their business, that’s going to benefit the networks and benefit ABC in particular.”
Mr. Shaw said getting paid for DVR viewers is crucial to the broadcast business plan. That revenue “will encourage the networks to stay as the prolific content producers we are,” he said.
ABC added 11 new shows to its schedule for next season.
“No other network spent more money and invested more in their future than ABC,” Mr. Shaw said.

2 Comments

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