Speaking Upfrontly

While many indications show that the price gap between cable and broadcast continues to widen in broadcast’s favor, some cable nets are experiencing some triumphs in narrowing the chasm. "Key cable nets such as Viacom’s [VIA] MTV and Disney’s ESPN are seeing strong double-digit CPM increases, closing the pricing gap with the broadcasters," Smith Barney Jill Krutick said in a research note Mon. She estimated that broadcast CPM growth is at the high end of Smith Barney estimates, but added total dollars could be up only modestly ($9.6bln) as nets may choose to sell less inventory in the hopes of benefiting from higher scatter market prices. By all accounts, ABC, CBS, NBC and FOX have lost some market share to cable. Time Warner CFO Wayne Pace at an investor conference Mon projected that the Turner Nets would receive double-digit dollar increases vs a year ago, with CPMs in the high single or low double digits. Turner has secured about 75-80% of its upfront commitments.