“After several years of moving money out of TV ad budgets to experiment with new digital outlets and social media, several big advertisers are spending more on the boob tube — and the result, according to ad buyers and other executives familiar with the pace of this year’s ‘upfront’ negotiations, [is] a series of rate increases that TV has not seen since the end of the last U.S. recession,” Variety reports in an exclusive published today.

The report cites a media buying executive who says consumer goods companies, fast-food chains and drug companies are all among those moving money into the TV upfront.

“Some of the money is coming back from digital spending, and some of it is being moved from TV’s so-called ‘scatter’ market, when advertisers pay for commercials much closer to their air date,” Variety reports. “The money ‘is sourced from different ways, but there’s no doubt it’s back in the upfront,’ this buying executive said.”

The report quotes NBCUniversal CEO Steve Burke saying at a conference this week: “We are having a very strong upfront.” NBC, the report notes, has been pushing for CPM hikes between 11% and 13% in prime time, while CBS is in the 9%-12% range and Fox is at 8.5%-10%. No numbers are given for ABC, but it is said to be in the same general ballpark.

We encourage readers to click on the link to Variety near the top of this story to read the publication’s full analysis.