UPN Sees Increases In Ad Sales

As the television networks finish their ad sales for the fall season, UPN and sister network CBS have significantly raised Viacom's revenues.

A Reuters report (via Yahoo!) noted that after a standoff on advertising prices that lasted for several weeks, UPN - the home of Star Trek: Enterprise - earned close to $350 million in commitments, a major increase from $250 million a year ago.

Reuters also cited average price increases close to 9 percent for the network as it finished advance sales for the 2004-05 broadcast season. Advertisers committed to buying commercial time in the upfront market that followed the networks' unveiling of their fall schedules a few weeks past.

Jack Myers, industry analyst and editor of the Jack Myers Report, told Reuters that the broadcast networks have taken in approximately $9 billion in upfront commitments, compared with a record $9.3 billion a year earlier, when the upfront market saw heated trading and significant price increases for more networks. Advertising executives had warned earlier this year that they would not submit to similar demands for price increases due to increased competition from cable and other media. This year, said Myers, "the marketplace didn't get out of hand and the networks really held to their guns in terms of pricing."

The original Reuters article is at Yahoo!

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