Heading into the upfront ad sales period, indications point to an increase in commitments of 3% to 5% over last year’s upfront, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The strong prognosis comes even amid concerns over cord cutting, sinking ratings and competition from Netflix and other streamers. “Broadcast TV has endured three consecutive years of upfront declines in terms of total ad spending while cable has dropped for the past two years,” the WSJ report notes.

The report cites one big reason for the expected turnaround. “Last year many advertisers who pulled back on spending commitments at the upfronts ended up paying more — in some cases 20% premiums — for commercial time later in the year in what is known as the ‘scatter’ market,” the story reports.